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Thursday, 23 August 2007 |
BOE to place new elementary schools in Wapakoneta, Cridersville
By WILLIAM LANEY
Managing Editor
Proclaiming to be keeping the best interest of residents within the entire school district in mind, Wapakoneta school officials Wednesday announced plans to build elementary schools in Cridersville and Wapakoneta.
Wapakoneta City Schools Board of Education members passed a resolution Wednesday to purchase 20 acres of land along Reichelderfer Road in Cridersville for a school, contingent upon district voters passing a bond issue.
“It is very important that people understand that our obligation as board members of the school district is to do what is best for the school district,” Board President Dave Copeland said explaining board members’ rationale prior to the vote on the resolution. “It is not to do what is best only for Wapakoneta, what is best only for Cridersville or any other outlying community in our school district — our responsibility is to do what is best for the entire school district.”
Copeland complimented his fellow board members for being good stewards of the school’s money and “looking not what should be done for the next 10 to 15 years, but for 40 years down the road.”
A second school board member said he sees it as an opportunity to grow and to improve the district for the youth of today and tomorrow.
This draws us one step closer to modernizing our schools with the help of state money,” board member Ron Mertz said during the meeting.
If the levy passes, school administrators plan to exercise options to purchase 20 acres south of Lavina Avenue and west of the CSX railroad tracks along Reichelderfer Schools.
Utilites are available to the site, south of Lavina Avenue properties.
Cridersville Village Council members intend to pass legislation to purchase 14 acres south of the school property and to deed 7.5 acres to the school district. School board members intend to donate 7.5 acres of land used as the Cridersville recreation park near the existing school to the village.
The purchase price for the 27.5 acres of land is $8,000 per acre for a total of $220,000.
Village administrators will exercise a similar option on the remaining land at the same $8,000 per acre price.
The Pugh and Hatch families donated 3.6 acres to the village to be included in the park.
School and village officials intend to integrate the school and park into a learning center with a nature laboratory.
Superintendent Keith Horner said after the meeting the next step is to let Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) Committee members, a group of school district residents, go to work and to spread the word about the school’s plans.
In June, school board members voted in favor of the “Red Plan,” which received strong community support. Under the “Red Plan,” the high school would be renovated for eighth- through 12th-grades, and the Wapakoneta Middle School renovated for fifth- through seventh-grades.
Two new elementary schools would be build for kindergarten through fourth-grades with one accommodating approximately 750 students and other accommodating approximately 350 students.
The larger elementary school is to be built east of Northridge Elementary in Wapakoneta and the smaller elementary school to be built on the Reichelderfer Road property in Cridersville.
“This is an unbelievable opportunity for our school district,” Horner told the Wapakoneta Daily News. “We have many advantages right now that I don’t think apply to other districts.”
Horner said advantages to locating a school in Cridersville include expanding the school’s relationship with Otterbein-Cridersville, insuring a park area surrounds the school, having existing utilities at the site and maintaining and possibly expanding student enrollment.
“If you look at the economics of schools today, there are no political boundaries to schools,” Horner said. “We are fighting for kids every day. Being concerned about the future health of the district, being concerned about the future economic health of the district — we felt that it was important to maintain a school in Cridersville, maintain a northern presence in our second largest community in the school district with just under 2,000 people where we can have potential growth in the years to come.
“We felt it was important decision to make for the entire district,” he said.
Cridersville Mayor Bob Conner, who thanked school board members for their hard work and diligence during the meeting, said people and business owners look for three things in a community — a grocery store, a bank and a school.
“We see it as keeping the growth in Cridersville and as it is now we see people wanting to come to Cridersville to live because they want to move out of the bigger cities,” Conner said. “We feel this will be a plus for us to encourage economic growth in Cridersville.”
At an Aug. 13 meeting, school board members approved placing a 5.8-mill bond issue on the November general election ballot.
Money raised from the bond issue fund the local share of the $48 million construction and renovation project.
The Ohio School Facilities Commission is paying up to 63 percent of the costs.
Eric McKinnis, who is leading the BEST campaign with Jennifer McDevitt, addressed school board members and 21 others attending Wednesday’s meeting. He spoke about the group’s effort to educate the school district’s voters on the importance of passing the bond issue.
After the meeting, McKinnis said the group’s work started with the vote Wednesday night.
“Things are already rolling, and residents should start to see information regarding the bond issue in the newspaper, at sporting events and through other avenues,” McKinnis said. “That is mostly what it is for us is getting the information out to people so they can make an informed decision on this opportunity that we have.” |
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Last Updated ( Friday, 24 August 2007 )
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