What's next?

The next big thing is to Vote Yes for Greenville Schools on November 8!

Upcoming Event

The next upcoming event for the Citizens for Quality Greenville Schools will occur on Saturday September 10, 2011 at 10:00 AM at Memorial Hall.  Invitations have been sent out to all elected officials in the 8 townships, 2 villages and the City of Greenville that compose the Greenville School System. At this gathering all of the information concerning the proposed new school will be presented to these community leaders.  It is the hope of the committee that this will form a nucleus of people where good information on the school project can come from..

THE STRAIGHT SCOOP ON THE NEW SCHOOL

This is the building the committee chose.

The Project 
- A new, fully furnished facility for grades k-8 and renovations to the existing High School. .
- An environmentally friendly and efficient building utilizing the benefits of "green"technology
- A building in which security features provide a safe environment for students and staff.
- New classrooms providing up-to-date technology, science labs, and flexible learning spaces to enhance the instructional environment.
- A building providing the space and accessibility to meet the needs of our physically challenged population.
- Renovations to the exisiting high school to create efficiencies of operation and enhanced educational opportunities.

• The Rationale: - 
• .The Ohio Schools Facilities Commission (OSFC) advised the district that aging buildings would cost more to renovate than to replace and OSFC would provide co-funding accordingly.
• The consolidation of Woodland, East, South, and the Junior High would allow operational cost reductions contrasting the current building configuration.
• The State's financial commitment to GCS's for the project is $18,192,750.
• Interest rates are at an all time low. 
• It is much more cost efficient to run one new building than four old buildings.

• The Cost For Taxpayer:
• 6.43 Mills for 28 years and 1/4% School District Income Tax
• With the elimination of a 2 mil permanent improvement levy enacted in 1989
• $ 100,000 home = $173 annually (taxpayer 64 years old and less living in home)
• $ 100,000 home = $144 annually (taxpayer 65 years or older living in home)
• $ 25,000 income = $63.00 annually ($50 Senior Credit)
• For information on figuring your tax burden go here: www.darkecountyrealestate.org/TaxEstimator/

The last new school built in the Greenville School District is the current High School. It will be 50 years old in 2013. There is money in the Ohio School Facilities Commission grant to refurbish the high school. It seemed that this was the most prudent course of action to take at this time. The current cost for operation of our current buildings is around $1.70 per square foot. New schools similar to ours are operating for less than half of that. So we go from four inefficient schools to one very efficient school and our operating levy lasts that much longer.

Publications Group

Citizens  for Quality Greenville Schools has met for an organizational meeting and many sub groups are busy working on different parts of the campaign to get the money to build a new school.  The Publications Group will handle everything that has to do with promoting the levy.

That committee met tonight and subgroups went to work on various parts of that groups areas.  People are working news releases, adds for the fair as well as information for hand outs and presentations.  Meetings are  being scheduled for local voters so that there are no questions unanswered.  Look for more information right here very soon. 

August 11, a Big Day for GSD

This evening there will be a meeting to introduce the school levy campaign to people who are interested in helping with the campaign.  The information given out tonight will only pertain to what the campaign will consist of, how the campaign will be run and what it will consist of.  Anyone who is interested in the campaign and wants to help should be at Memorial hall at 7.  Hope to see your there.

We're on Our Way

An organizational meeting was held in the Anna Bier Room of Memorial Hall today for the committee that will guide the district through the election process to acquire the money necessary for a new school.  The meeting was well attended and people volunteered for assignments in areas that they felt comfortable in.  This will all lead to an eventual development of informational presentations that will be presented throughout the district.  Watch here for more info as the process continues.

Was anyone really mad at the BOE/

The firing of the coaches by the City School Board caused an eruption of sentiment that ranged from support, to get rid of all of them. I wrote on Countynewsonline.org after it happened and offered a couple of solutions for the problem of dealing with this board. There was a recall petition of all of the board. That is a simple matter; all it takes is identifying the act that would warrant the recall, (which might be a problem) getting the petition signed by the correct number of people and then having it placed on the ballot. I haven’t heard of THAT happening yet..
Then I mentioned taking out a petition and gathering the correct amount of signatures to get your name placed on the ballot to actually run against these people that no one seems to like. I don’t think that’s happened yet. I also made mention that if we the people got rid of them, their names wouldn’t be on the brass plaque in the hall way of the new school. That would fix them! (OUCH!)
One of the board members questioned me on my motives for offering these suggestions, especially the first one and the last one. Well you see, I’ve watched things here for a long time. Previously some people would write letters to the editor where they had to sign their name. Now with chat boxes on two local web pages, there exists the ability to publish in print ones likes and dislikes without ever identifying one’s self. My suggestions were met exactly how I figured they’d be met. Absolutely nothing happened and they are still talking today.
If anything, some of the biggest complainers stopped complaining. That’s probably a good thing. What it says is that a lot of people complain for an opportunity to vent. They have no intention of actually doing anything about the problem, if in fact one actually exists. There was obviously some sort of problem with the coaches in question and perhaps we just don’t need to drag them through the mud any more than has already been done. Perhaps we don’t really need to know why they were fired. By the same token, the board making decisions with an empty gallery at most board meetings doesn’t say a whole lot about the rest of the people living in the district. That’s probably the place to do your complaining, before the fact, not after.
So since the board isn’t getting impeached and no one is running against them, that part is over with. Now to the task at hand.
We need to do something about our antique school buildings. We have five of them. They range in age from 100 years old to 50 years old. The 50 year old one is still acceptable mostly because of construction practices that were used in the 1960’s when it was built. The rest of the buildings are falling apart. That isn’t because they’ve not been taken care of, it’s because you can only fix things so many times, and these buildings are at their limit.
The energy inefficiency is only a part of the problem of the high cost to run these buildings. The roofs leak, the pipes leak, the pipes are buried in the floors, the electrical panels are obsolete and on and on. in May we had the good foresight to pass an operating levy to keep the district going. That was a good thing. A new building that will operate at half the cost of the old ones will guarantee that the operating levy will serve us well for a long time. Now we have an opportunity to have the State of Ohio share in the cost of a new energy efficient building and even pay for the dismantling of the old buildings. If we keep the situation the way it is, we are just throwing good operating money after bad situations.
Joe Payne was correct in his recent article, just because one thinks that the board made a mistake on the coaches doesn’t give the rest of us the right to make a mistake on funding a new school. The last generation of people to have had to worry about a new school is almost extinct. Let’s don’t try to compare apples and oranges anymore. The new school is a separate issue and needs the attention of all of us to get all of the facts and make an intelligent decision on voting day.
Traditionally about 30% of the 15,374 registered voters in the Greenville City School  District vote on issues. In May when the operating levy was on the ballot 20% of the 15,000 people voted. So much for complaining where it really counts.

Next Step Coming Soon

The next step in getting a new school is to educate everyone in the district.  You all  need to know what is happening, how the new building will be paid for and everything about it. This will be done by a series of presentations throughout the district.  In these presentations local people will talk to their neighbors about the process, what the school will look like and why the design was chosen. The presentations will be developed soon and we are looking for volunteers to help with all parts of the project.  If you are interested in helping on any part of the project, send an email to greenvilleschoolcommitte@live.com and someone will contact you.

What's next

We have gotten through the development phase of deciding what new school building should be built and the committee chose a K-8 building.  Now comes the hard  part.  Funding this building.  Funding will come from a new school levy for 60% of the money.  Forty percent will come from the State of Ohio funding.  This "campaign" will be starting soon and will include informational sessions with any group who wants to know what is going on.  Information will be posted on this blog as well as the Advocate, Darke Journal, County News Online, Wave 96 and hopefully the Early Bird.  This will be good, correct information and hopefully will only have to be done one time. More soon.

Good Info on the Schools Project

As we move through the process of selecting a building to build and ways to promote it and pay for it, there will always be different opinions, different interpretations and in general, different ways of looking at the issue.  This blog will always try to provide current information about the meetings and new issues that pop up.  Darke Journal has an excellent page right now (Link to DJ) which address the issue as well as the Daily Advocate.  Wave 96 has committed to keeping everyone abreast on the situation.  Best of all people have started reading the information and asking good, intelligent, constructive questions.  Hopefully this will continue.  As time goes on, the committee will get information a little more coordinated, but make sure to check all the sources all the time.

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.