By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Mayor Mike Aspacher served up coffee, doughnut holes, and some sobering news Tuesday morning at the Wood County Senior Center.
The conditions at Bowling Green’s 60-year-old high school are discouraging businesses and families from locating in the city.
“We have the oldest school buildings in the county,” Aspacher said during his “conversation with the community.” And voters keep failing to pass funding for new buildings.
“I hear every day about economic opportunities and the lack of investments in our schools,” he said. Major employers like Wood County Hospital, Bowling Green State University, and local manufacturers have difficulty hiring people who want to make their homes in Bowling Green.
“The conditions of our school buildings are affecting those decisions,” the mayor said.
“It’s not my intention to tell anyone how to vote,” but rather to present information about the upcoming bond issue raising $72.8 million over 30 years for a new high school, Aspacher said.
City Council is also preparing to take a stand on the issue – and will vote soon on a resolution supporting the Bowling Green public school system – specifically the high school levy on the Nov. 7 ballot.
The resolution calls the condition of the current high school “unacceptable.”
Despite some in the community criticizing the legality of elected city officials voicing opinions on the school bond issue, the Auditor of State’s office said their actions are within the law.
While some elected officials are governed by the Ohio Revised Code 9.03 regarding election issues, this city is not, according to Marc Kovac, external communication specialist with Auditor of State Keith Faber.
“Bowling Green, as a charter city, is not subject to the limitations in state law prescribed under ORC 9.03,” Kovac said on Tuesday.
Aspacher said to avoid any perceptions of impropriety, he purchased refreshments for the gatherings, and paid the rental fee for the Veterans Building in City Park, where an evening session was held.
“No appropriations have been made by the city,” Aspacher said, noting that the city checked on the legalities and found council’s and the mayor’s actions are permissible. “We consulted with legal counsel.”
Most of Tuesday’s community conversation was carried by Trevor Jessee, a member of the BG Families for Schools. Jessee said he decided to raise his daughter in Bowling Green in 2007, when the new BG Middle School was being built. That was the last year a new building was constructed in the district.
“If I’d have known that then, I may have packed my bags and moved up north,” he said.
Jessee ticked off a list of problems with the aging high school. The classrooms don’t meet today’s Ohio educational standards. The building has an estimated $25 million in major repairs.
The band-aid approach is not enough to solve the problems. The boiler room creates a fog on stairways, causes deteriorating woodwork, rusting door frames, and creates sauna like heat in one corner of the school. The pipes have burst multiple times, flooding the school.
Space is an issue. There are no collaborative or flexible areas commonly used in today’s learning spaces. The chemistry rooms – built 60 years ago – don’t have the space required for today’s chemistry classrooms. A storage room has been transformed into a small classroom. All these are “distractions from education,” he said.
Jessee has heard from several citizens that the school is still good enough.
“Most people have not been back in school for many years,” he said.
“The classrooms are affecting educational outcomes,” he said. And while that is the most important job of schools, the facilities also play a role in communities.
Corporations eyeing Bowling Green as a place for business are looking for better than “good enough.”
Jessee shared a quote from Bowling Green Economic Development Director Kati Thompson, saying “Our buildings are decades older than our neighbors’ in Wood County, and it’s time to invest in the future of the community.”
Jessee shared Thompson’s experience as she showed the Abbott Lab corporate leaders around Bowling Green, in hopes of attracting the company to the city. She had 25 minutes to show them the highlights – driving through the downtown, by campus, around City Park and Simpson Garden Park.
Then Thompson made sure to route the tour past the high school so it was only viewed from Fairview Avenue, where the newer Middle School could be seen.
“They had to avoid the front of our high school because it could be a deal breaker,” Jessee said.
Company leaders care about school facilities. “They want to know their children will be in a good school,” he said.
Good schools attract and retain young families, protect and strengthen property values, attract new businesses and support existing businesses, Jessee said.
The school district has made the drawings of the proposed high school available at https://www.bgcs.k12.oh.us/district/superintendent/facilities-planning. A portion of the old high school that contains spaces for music and agricultural education will be retained and turned into a community activity center.
According to the Wood County Auditor’s Office, the bond issue will cost the owner of a property valued at $100,000 an additional $16.14 a month, or $193.68 a year. The auditor uses a $100,000 sample property to make it easier to calculate the cost for more expensive properties.
