Greenville Schools Facility Meeting 5/17/2011

The Greenville Schools Facility Meeting was held on Tuesday evening in the Anna Bier room of Memorial Hall with 31 people present from all over the district.  There was an enormous amount of discussion on all issues but only two things to vote on:

1. Which building plan to go with ?
2. Should we put a bond levy on the ballot in November?

The first question was pretty easy.  Almost everyone voted for Plan B. this is the K-8 building that we looked at last week and can be seen here. There will be further information forthcoming on this plan.
This plan allows the district to build one building for K-8 as well as begin the refurbishing process on the existing high school.  The existing high school is the only building in the district that complies with current Ohio School Standards. As shown here the building consists basically of two wings one for the lower grades and one for the upper grades housed on two floors.  The athletic fields are not in the plan now but are on the drawing to show how things will fit and these can be developed later.  Busses will be able to pick up and drop off students in two areas thus eliminating the comingling of older with younger students.
The number 2 question was so easy.  Should the Board of Education put this to a vote in the November election.  There were some outside factors.  First there is a bill in the legislature that may eliminate special elections, limiting then number of times the issue could be put on the ballot.  The other point of contention is that the Greenville Library is also asking for money on that election.  Unfortunately, it will be listed as “”Greenville Schools Library” which could put a damper on the actual school issue.  At any rate, the number 2 question passed so it will be on the November ballot if the board chooses to put it there.
All of this will be presented to the Board of Education at the May 24th meeting.  It will then be up to them to move forward. This has all been a very positive experience for everyone involved.  It has allowed a lot of people from all over the district to have input, understand what is going on and take things back to their neighbors.  Feedback has been mostly positive. Now comes the job of educating everyone in the district on the project.
To keep things in perspective, this year marks the 100th birthday of the South School.  No one is around who built it to celebrate.  Let’s hope that is true of the new building in 100 years.
More later on funding, the campaign and other issues of building a new building.

NOTE:

Numbers on each rendition of a building for the state participation and the GCSD won't add up to the total. This is because of Locally Funded Initiatives (LFi's).  LFI's are additions to the project that we have felt were needed  and the state won't help fund.  This isn't to say that they will always be on the budget per say but were needed in the proposal to keep the funding sources straight.  As things go on, they may be removed or be allowed or simply kept in place.  Some will also be phased in. Coming soon, a list of LFI's for you to consider.

Greenville School Facilities Meeting

After the Greenville City School Board Meeting this past week, the School Facilities Committee met in the Anna Bier Room of Memorial Hall.  As always it is good to see the excellent turnout of citizens representing the whole district.  Members of the committee were invited from every precinct in the district and it is well represented.

As always the Architectural –Engineer Firm of Garmann and Miller of Minster gave this month’s presentation for the committee to consider.  This month we were able to see the architect's rendering of three different ways a new school could be configured.

Option A

The first option to be considered would be to build a new Elementary and a new Middle School on the N. Ohio Street Property.  The estimated cost to Greenville City School District would be $26,503,000 with the state of Ohio picking up $17,668,000. This is a 60/40 split and comes from the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission (OSFC). Total cost for this project is $48,434,000.  In all cases, once we decide on the direction to go we have one year to guarantee the money with a 1 time school facility levy.  The OSFC money includes money for demolition of existing facilities.  This building proposal would house Grades K-4 in one building and 5-8 in the second.  The Architects rendering looks like this.

(Click on Pictures for a larger view)

These buildings would sit on he N. Ohio St. Property.  The athletic complex would not be built when the school is done but perhaps down the road as conditions warrant.

Option B

The second choice would be a single building on the N. Ohio St. property to house all primary grades, K-8 in one facilities. This type of building has been built in numerous cities and villages in our area and has worked well.  It looks like this.

This option seemed to be the one that made the most sense to the committee with the District’s share being $27,779,000  and the State share at $18,519,000 but a total cost of $44,379,000.

Option C

This Option would give us a new high school on the N. Ohio St. Property and renovate the existing High School for Elementary use.  It would look like this.

In all cases the athletic fields would not be built when the school was constructed.  The committee looked at all of the issues and felt that Option B was the best route to go because it was less facility, put all elementary students in the same place, needed fewer administrators and provided a very workable situation if in the future it ever needed to be added onto.  Cost for this facility would be $52,729,000, with our cost being $31,593,000 and the state $21,060,000.

The OSFC’s study of the Greenville School System shows only one building, the present Senior High School, as having qualities that would allow it to be renovated for future use.  The other buildings, South, East and Woodland have problems with heating (old boilers and piping), lots of asbestos, lack of insulation, old wiring and distribution panels, leaking piping as well as some lead piping.  The current high school opened in the fall of 1962 with the first class graduating in 1963.  Although it has some problems, because of the era in which it was built it is more conducive to renovation.

The total price on all of the facilities includes money for demolition and some locally funded initiatives (LFI’s).  These are things that the state won’t fund but are needed to enhance the education of the students.  The OSFC will be adjusting all costs in May of this year so at the next meeting we should have definitive answers for total costs.  Garmann and Miller have an excellent track record dealing with the OSFC and dealing with the numerous ways this money can be spent.

The major consideration on all of these proposals is the operation of the buildings.  At the present time the operation of our existing buildings ranges from $1.50 to $1.90 square foot.  Records show that buildings recently built by Garmann and Miller are operating between 60 and 90 cents a foot.  This is a significant savings for operations and will pretty much guarantee that our operating levies now in place will stay as they are in the foreseeable future.  This is happening because of new technologies in heating, lighting, building components, insulation and construction standards.

Classrooms Facilities Assistance Program

The second meeting of the Greenville City School’s Classrooms Facilities Assistance Program committee met at Woodland Heights school Tuesday evening.  The meeting was very well attended and began immediately after the regular School Board Meeting. Hopefully the good attendance means that we are headed in the right direction.


Garman/Miller Architects -Engineers of Minster facilitated the meeting.  They have vast experience in the field of building schools and a complete working knowledge of the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission’s Classroom Facilities Assistance Program (CFAP). This program will provide much of the funding for building new classroom space in the Greenville City School District.  There are a number of options on the table and these were brought about by an assessment of all of our schools.  This assessment revealed that only the High School was a candidate for rehabilitation.  This was brought out at the first meeting and committee members have spent much time in the interim taking tours of schools in our district as well as new schools in other districts.  On average, it costs $1.70 per sq. ft. to operate a school building.  The new buildings that were toured can be operated for 70 cents per sq. ft because of energy saving design and new technology in heating and cooling, electrical and appliances.


The school board has a number of building configurations to choose from.  One of the products of the committee’s deliberations is to assist the BOE in making this decision.  By May of 2011, a decision must be made on which Master Plan will be used to guarantee the State’s offer of funding.  If the decision is YES then there will be a one year window to secure a bond issue to fund the school.  The first opportunity for the bond levy will be the November 2011 election.


The next meeting will be held after the April 19th  board meeting where we will look at options and decide which option to go with.


Garaman/Miller used a voting program where all participants at the meeting were able to vote on the various options.  Since most people attending had also taken tours of the districts buildings, the first vote on whether we needed new buildings showed that 95% strongly agreed and 5% somewhat agreed that there was a significant problem.  The Ohio Schools Facility Commission will provide a maximum of $26,312,000 to complete this project.  Greenville’s portion will be $67,237,000.


The next question that needed an answer was did the committee feel that we should move ahead by taking the OSFC offer of $26,000,000 and build to an approved Master Plan.  Meeting attendees voted 100% to take the offer.  This means that at some point the bond levy will be placed on the ballot for all voters in the district to approve.


There are a number of Master Plan options to be considered and these consist of how the voters want the buildings configured such as to build a new K-8 and renovate the high school or renovate the high school for K-8 and build a new high school.  In all there were 8 different options and a lot of discussion.


The next question was probably the hardest and that was whether the committee felt that a bond levy can be passed.  This was the vote of the evening with the widest areas of disagreement.  In all most people felt that it would be good to do the project as a segmented project.  This means that state money would be guaranteed and that we would be able to start the project and complete the whole thing as we can.  It allows us the most flexibility.  As a segmented project we needed to decide which buildings need the most help the soonest.  Unfortunately this is a hard question and the vote on this was widely separated.  The options were K-5, 6-8 or 9-12 with a career technology center.  All of the elementary buildings are in dire need as was evidenced in the tours that we took.  All have significant boiler problems.  Woodland has major leaks in the steam piping which have been patched over and over.  It also has asbestos laden ceiling in all rooms and hallways except the gym.  Additionally it is on well water which must be treated and has it’s own sewage plant.


None of the buildings have fire protection and only a couple are tied into a central station alarm.  South, East and the Jr. High have electrical panels which are no longer in production meaning that if a breaker goes bad, it cannot be replaced.  The list is endless.


What will happen now is that Garmann/Miller will take the information that we gave them and come up with more refinement on the options that we gave them.  This will give more detailed costs and be available for the next meeting.

Good News From Greenville Schools

Tonight, the Greenville City Schools will convene the first meeting a group to help guide further input on the school building situation.  The BOE has published their intention to participate in the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission's Classroom Facilities Assistance Program.  To gather input, they are requesting input from a cross section of the district representing all of the precincts which vote on GCS issues.   This is a definite step in the right direction.  This meeting will be held at the South School.  There will be three other meetings in the following months.

2009-2010 School Report Card

Every October the Ohio Graduation Test is given and soon we will see the results of that test.  In the meantime, here is the 2009-2010  report card for the entire district.  While we have an Effective District, we are still below the average in most areas.  To see the results of the entire district's report card, go HERE  Here is a quick look at the results. Keep in mind that the state requirement is 75%.   Cells in RED are below the state requirements. Numbers in the right column in red are below similiar district average.