HANCOCK — The old Hancock Central High School is an area icon that has been sitting empty for several years but new plans may see it put to use again by the 2020-21 school year.

The original plan was hatched in 2009 over a chicken wrap and signed a year later with Hancock High School exchanging what is now McAfee Field and the old school for student scholarships for Hancock graduates attending Finlandia.

“If this had not happened, that building was slated for demolition,” said Finlandia’s president, Philip Johnson.

Not including 2018-19 numbers, 196 students have taken advantage of the program, a $3.6 million total. The program was to last 12 years and is still ongoing.

Finlandia planned to quickly turn the old school into the home of their college of health sciences using donations. The plan raised over $1.2 million for the project but ultimately fell short of its $6 million goal, delaying the project.

Some of those initial funds have already been put to use on upgrades for fire code compliance, replacing auditorium seating that went with Hancock in the move, the roof and other improvements.

However, with funding indicating a longer timeline for the project, Finlandia is taking a different approach going forward to speed up the work, Johnson said.

The idea is to copy the success Finlandia saw developing the Jutila Center, where some floors of the building were sold to fund work on the others.

“We are taking that same model and applying it to this building,” Johnson explained.

In the case of the Hancock school, the sale of the top floor is now planned to fund the needed renovations. A private developer is already interested, he said. What that space will be has yet to be determined but commercial or residential development are possibilities. Both of which would bring people into the downtown, Johnson said.

Following the perhaps overly ambitious timeline of the original plan, Johnson says he is humbled but resolved to see the project completed and providing classes for students by the 2020-21 school year.

Aiding the efforts, the city of Hancock was able to assist in getting the school on the national register of historic places in July of this year, which opens up funding opportunities.

For the three floors still slated for university use, plans will need to be reworked, said Vice President for Academic Affairs Fredi de Yampert.

Classrooms and offices will need to be more condensed since the upper floor is no longer in play but the plan is to still keep the gym and auditorium largely as is and available for community use as originally planned.

The Quincy Green is intended to remain a community gathering point as it is now, and historic woodwork and features in the building will also be kept.

The important factors of historical preservation and restoration, combined with the old school’s transformation into a college environment, remain the focus of development in the building under the new approach, Johnson said.