Issue 4: Brunswick City Schools to have bond issue to complete the district's master facility plan on May ballot

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick Schools will have a bond issue on the ballot one last time in May, which would allow the district to complete its master facility plan mainly by constructing a new high school. Issue 4 is a 3.3-mill bond issue that would last 37 years. If it passes, homeowners will pay $7 per month per $100,000 of home value. Last summer, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission approved about $42.6 million in funding to construct a new Brunswick High School. To receive the funding, $102 million would have to be raised locally, which would go toward building the high school and locally funded initiatives. The funding would go toward: Demolishing the current maintenance building, Towslee Elementary School, Willetts Middle School and the existing Brunswick High School. Building a new high school with a performing arts center that would seat 1,000, a synthetic turf multipurpose field, tennis courts and a full-size baseball field. Relocating and constructing a new board of education office and maintenance facility where Willetts Middle School is located. Making additional classrooms and site improvements for traffic patterns at Applewood and Kidder elementary schools. A new, 285,000-square-foot high school would be built where Towslee Elementary School is located. After this school year, students will no longer attend Towslee even if the bond issue fails. OFCC encourages schools to replace buildings rather than renovate when it exceeds the two-thirds renovation-to-replacement cost as Brunswick High School has. "When Burger King decided that they needed to think differently about the structure they had in place, did they renovate that building?" Brunswick City Schools Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer said. "No, they did not. They took it down. They built a brand-new one because from a construction perspective, that's just more efficient." He said the current building systems in the high school have met or are exceeding its life expectancy. The HVAC system alone would cost about $18.5 million to replace, and the electrical system that supports the HVAC would be approximately $10.5 million. "It's like the domino effect because once you have a new electoral system and new HVAC, we know that we'll need new windows and doors," Niedermeyer said. "It's like one thing after another just to replace an aging HVAC system." As part of a high school tour in September, participants saw water leaking from the ceiling into trash cans, cracked floors from the water that is under the ground and part of the music room cracking and sinking. Administration also talked about the problems with noise level, temperature control and outdated science labs on the tour. The school was built over the course of three decades because the school had to keep up with Brunswick's growing population. Niedermeyer said the claims that the district has been neglecting to maintain the building is false. "We have an excellent maintenance department," he said. "They've done a tremendous job of utilizing a band-aid approach to keep the building up and running." A new building would have features similar to the Brunswick Middle School that enhance students' learning in a modern way. He said a new building would also focus on safety features. "I don't want people to feel that Brunswick High School is not safe now," Niedermeyer said. "Ultimately, we know that building a new building will put us in a better position to be able to guarantee the safety of our kids." Earlier this year, the Brunswick Board of Education voted to defer collections on the bond until 2025 if it passes. "We wanted to recognize that feedback from our community and really try to address the uncertainty of the future while recognizing the financial challenges of today," Niedermeyer said. "We feel like by deferring collection until January 2025, we're doing that." Deferring collections on the bond will not impact the project timeline, he said. Upon passage, construction would begin in 2024, and the new school would be open for the 2026-27 school year. "It will allow us to begin the project now and get us moving towards the completion of our master facility plan," Niedermeyer said. OFCC gives districts 13 months to get the local share to fund the project. There will not be a special election in August, so May is the last opportunity for the bond issue to pass. The levy failed in November. "The completion of the master facility plan will put the district in a position to not have to worry about major facilities improvements, I would say for decades to come," Niedermeyer said. "At the end of the day this is going to have a significant impact on generations of students into the future." Another Brunswick High School tour will take place on April 15 at 2 p.m. Visit bit.ly/3KGANZc to register for the tour. "We are welcoming anyone from the community to come and hear specifically from the administration and teaching staff at Brunswick High School," Niedermeyer said. "(They will) talk a little bit more about the current state of the building, and what the potential for a new building would look like." More information on Issue 4 can be found at bit.ly/3gHUQJY. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.