News
Athens Facilities Plans Inch Forward
By: Susan Tebben
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ATHENS — The members of the Athens City School District made one thing clear Thursday night: they want to rebuild.
The discussion about where the board will land on a facilities master plan has been ongoing for more than a year, but in April a decision has to be made in order for the district to get the state funding match they have been counting on.
Though the board previously said the project might be broken up into separate bond issues to avoid lumping the cost onto taxpayers all at once, in order to get the match (about one-third of the costs) for the funds from the state, the board needs to come up with a plan in the next two months.
The total cost is currently estimated at about $90 million, leaving the district to pay about $60 million of that.
The Board of Education, various architectural consultants and the public have been weighing in on the options recommended by a Facilities Planning Committee made up of local community members. The options ranged from multiple new facilities to a multi-class facility (which some in opposition called a “mega school”), to renovations of current buildings with different grade configurations.
At the end of a lengthy conversation at Thursday’s regular board meeting, which focused on the issue of placement of the sixth-grade class, board members Sean Parsons, Paul Grippa and Rusty Rittenhouse agreed that renovation made the most sense in regards to Athens Middle School.
“I don’t think there’s a reason to consider a rebuild over a renovation at this point, right?” Rittenhouse asked of the other board members. The only member not present at the meeting was Kim Goldsberry.
During the meeting, the board was shown a presentation by Mike Dingeldein of Community Development Alliance, an architectural firm brought in as consultants on the project.
The presentation showed the possibility of an addition to Athens Middle School, which would include the sixth-grade classes. A point of contention in the facilities plans has been whether to put the sixth graders with the lower level grades (grades 3 to 5), or whether to include them with grades 7 and 8.
Whether the board decides to put the grade in Athens Middle School or at The Plains Elementary – the other option presented at a previous meeting – a renovation with an addition or a rebuild of the entire building would be necessary, Dingeldein said, citing rules made by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.
Dingeldein said a “small” addition of 7,200 sq. ft. would be needed to meet state standards and add classrooms for sixth-graders. He also informed the board that if Athens Middle School was not used as a space for sixth-graders, the district may face a “severe” penalty from the state because of the unused space that currently exists in the facility.
“It is a difference of about $2 million in LFI (locally-funded initiatives) to put the sixth grade in the middle school,” Dingeldein said.
Locally-funded initiatives are those monies paid for directly by the district, typically through a levy or bond issue.
Community members spoke on both sides of the issue at the meeting. A sixth-grade teacher said students at that grade level belong “emotionally” as well as academically with seventh and eighth-graders.
A parent who experienced many moves as a student herself was opposed to the idea of moving her child to a new school, saying the confidence her child had built would be shaken with the move to a new grade configuration.
Projects included in the proposed renovation of Athens Middle School would include a “recapturing,” as Dingeldein called it, of the Media Center. The Media Center would be combined with a common area for students.
The renovation would also include a new, more secure entrance to the school, along with more handicapped access to the school, and an extra lane for school bus loading and unloading.