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.