Buckeye Local Schools announces updated facilities master plan

MEDINA — Buckeye Local Schools Superintendent Jeff Harrison revealed an updated facilities master plan during the Buckeye Board of Education meeting Tuesday. Harrison showed options of what the new layout could possibly look like. The rough budget is $57 million for the project without including add-ons like stadiums in the estimate. One option is to put a new building for grades seven to 12 on the northernmost part of the school district, Harrison said. There would be a "campus feel" with the seventh to 12th grade building facing the primary school building with green space in between. Utilities would be close to the facility. The entrance at Wolff Road would be widened and infrastructure would be designed so buses are separate from car riders. The baseball, softball and soccer practice fields would remain while the football field and old baseball field would be relocated to a centralized athletic facility on campus. This could be built while the junior high and high school remains intact as to not interrupt learning. Later, the current junior high and a portion of the high school would be bulldozed. The remaining part of the high school would be repurposed. "Please don't jump to conclusions," Harrison said. "Those are just things that have been shared with me that we said if we're being proactive and planning for our acreage, we need to place these things on the map. It doesn't mean one fell swoop and all this happens, but we need to have a plan." Another option was to place the new seventh to 12 grade building north of the soccer track complex where it is closest to the kindergarten through sixth grade building. Harrison said this configuration would congest traffic more. The football stadium would remain but the baseball and softball fields would be relocated. About 81 percent of the funds for the approved construction projects will have to be paid for locally while the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission can pay 19 percent, Harrison said. This state funding would go toward classrooms rather than auditoriums or stadiums. In order for OFCC to agree to fund part of the project, the building needs at least 350 students and have the cost to renovate the building be more than two-thirds of the cost to build a new school of a similar size. The junior high has exceeded two-thirds cost and the high school is close to that threshold. The district created the Facilities Advisory Committee, which was made up of people who are trustees, parents and community members throughout the three townships the school district serves. The group studied the current facilities and the estimated increased enrollment projection and gave feedback throughout the creation of the facilities master plan. The district is taking a proactive approach to the process rather than a reactive one, Harrison said. The goal is to have an official master plan and ask for funding around November 2023. "We're gonna have continued conversations so that when we get to November of '23, it's crystal clear throughout our community that this is the direction our school district is heading because fortunately, or unfortunately, we can't stay where we're at," he said. "We have to move forward with facilities." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.