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School Facilities
Commission discuss facility options
By Bob Rhoades
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 to be considered would be to build a new Elementary and a new
Middle School on 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. See above.
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. See below.
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. See Below.
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.
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