By JAN McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
It may feel like Groundhog Day all over again for Bowling Green City Schools officials.
Years after initial assessments of the district’s aging elementary schools, with the state determining that two of the three buildings are not worth renovations, the process has begun again to study the future of the elementaries.
At Tuesday evening’s Board of Education meeting, President Ardy Gonyer said the core team looking at the elementaries recently toured the three buildings with DLR Group, the design firm hired for master planning services. DLR Group is the firm that designed the new high school currently under construction.
The tours gave the design firm and district officials an opportunity to examine the buildings, see what is lacking, and determine a vision for the future, Gonyer said.
“Work is being done to prepare for whatever comes next,” he said.
On the tours with the architectural firm were staff members of the elementaries, school administration officials and board members, Superintendent Ted Haselman said.
“We’re beginning envisioning what future buildings could look like,” Haselman said.
Gonyer has assured there will be no tax issue on the ballot for the elementaries this year. While board members have stressed they don’t want to rush the process, they also don’t want to stall studying the options.
The architectural firm has been hired to:
- Assess existing facilities.
- Assist the board in determining the scope of any potential projects.
- Prepare estimates of costs for all the options.
- Provide feasibility studies of potential sites for new buildings.
- Provide necessary graphics to serve as informational tools for a potential bond issue.
- Attend community meetings to present information and provide technical assistance.
Gonyer said the district has much to do before picking the best plan and asking the voters to support it. As was done for the high school project, planning for the elementaries will involve input from community members, teachers and support staff.
The district has struggled to find a solution to its aging elementaries that voters will support.
A study of the three elementaries – Conneaut, Crim and Kenwood – done years ago by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, came to the conclusion that the Conneaut and Kenwood buildings were not worth the district sinking any more money into. The Crim building, which has gone through extensive renovations, was determined to be salvageable.
Unlike the architectural study for the new high school, this examination of the elementaries has far more moving pieces. The options could include one new unified elementary, building two new K-5 elementaries, or building two new elementaries – one for K-2 students and another for grades 3-5.
With each of these options, the study will look at construction costs, operations considerations, and the educational advantages of each.
Recognizing that these are tough times for tax levies in Ohio, Gonyer said earlier this year that delaying dealing with the elementaries will only add to the costs. Nine years ago, when the district proposed a plan for a new high school and a consolidated elementary, voters rejected the dual project that came with a $70 million price tag.
That delay ultimately led to the district passing a bond issue for $72 million just for the high school.
“The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be,” Gonyer said.
The 2023 facility master plan for the entire district made some recommendations for the elementary schools.
Conneaut, Crim and Kenwood elementaries were built in the 1950s and 1960s – and 75 years later, they are not able to accommodate the district’s vision for future-ready learning due to space limitations, according to the report.
The teachers and staff in the buildings work diligently to retrofit existing infrastructure, making space for teachers and staff and creatively repurposing existing spaces to better support students. The presence of portable classrooms on the Conneaut campus has posed additional challenges to program accessibility and teacher collaboration.
Beyond the outdated infrastructure, technology and systems, the physical layouts of the buildings do not accommodate desired teaching and learning, according to the report.
The report suggested that more comprehensive efforts – such as the planning for the new high school – should be extended to the elementary schools.
The master plan considered different scenarios for the elementaries that provide opportunities for expanded district resources, equality of resources to all students, and support of the families the district serves. The three options noted were:
- To foster equitable experiences and ensure no student or educator is limited by outdated facilities, consider the replacement of all three school buildings at their current sites to keep neighborhood schools.
- With a new recent addition, Crim Elementary could potentially accommodate district offices, pre-kindergarten students, and serve as an autism center. This transition could yield cost savings by relocating district offices to a district-owned facility, while expanding resources for district families. The replacement of Kenwood and Conneaut, along with the inclusion of students from Crim, would be under consideration.
- Build a single unifying elementary. Although this deviates from the idea of individual neighborhood schools, it ensures equal access to resources. This approach would potentially reduce maintenance costs, but it raises concerns about managing a single elementary with more than 1,000 students. Strategies creating smaller cohorts within a unified school could emulate the neighborhood concept while maintaining efficiency.
