On Monday, February 1, about 200 people attended a community meeting hosted by the North Royalton City Schools’ Community Engagement Task Force at the North Royalton High School Performing Arts Center. The meeting was held to present the recommendations of the Task Force regarding the facilities of the district.
School Superintendent Greg Gurka began the meeting, which was attended by all of the North Royalton Board of Education and School District Administrators. He began by saying, “For more than a year, the mission of this Task Force has been to engage the community in active dialog through surveys, community discussions and public meetings, along with responsibly researching the best options for the residents and taxpayers of North Royalton through dialog with State Certified Professionals in the education and school construction fields.” He then introduced Task Force Chairperson, Vincent Weimer, who noted that this recommendation was the “beginning conversation” of how we are going to provide education for district children. He then recapped the process of the past year, which included various surveys, school visits, and coffees. He also noted that professional resources were utilized, including “Corky O’Callaghan, with 25 years of experience in helping school districts engage the community in more than 30 school districts; Christopher Smith, of TDA Architecture, with 30 years of experience in educational classroom design and community engagement; Jeffery Tuckerman, of Hammond Construction, a state representative for construction recommendations and guidance on state funding programs; and Bill Prenosil of the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC), the agency responsible for guiding capital projects for schools and other state-agencies.” He then deferred to Task Force member, Kelli Schubert, who presented a more detailed analysis of the entire process.
Weimer then presented the recommendations of the Task Force, noting that the information taken from individuals was taken “very strongly into consideration into what we are recommending.” He said that it was clear that the community was interested in either the updating of the facilities or the building of new buildings. Of the two options, it was the recommendation of the Task Force that one or two elementary schools be built, the Middle School renovated and the sections of the High School renovated, while demolishing and rebuilding those sections that were built before 1976. “It does not make sense financially to simply renovate,” stated Weimer. “The main finding of our task force members is that a basic renovation of the three elementary buildings, not including any additional 21st century learning or core space, would be more costly than new construction.”
According to school officials, “based on the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) report to the district, renovation of Albion Elementary would be $10.46 million. To build a new school, based on existing square footage of the current building, the cost would be approximately $11 million. This would be the case with the other two buildings roughly in the same condition with the same estimates. Building one elementary school that would be home to preschool through fourth grade would cost approximately $32.2 million. Building two new elementary buildings would cost approximately $36 million. Renovation to the middle school would cost approximately $13 million. The demolishing and rebuilding of all portions of the high school that were built prior to 1976 would cost approximately $24.5 million. Renovating portions that were built after 1976 would cost approximately $22 million.” The projected cost of renovating all buildings totaled about $81 million. Weimer noted that “we can’t emphasize enough that these numbers or initial thoughts are not set in stone. They are rough estimates based on square footage and can increase or decrease depending on a variety of circumstances and the plan that we propose.” He also noted that it was important to include a maintenance program into the plan. “Implementing on-going permanent improvement dollars to maintain our investment is critical,” he said.
After the presentation, small discussion groups were formed to discuss the recommendations in order to provide more feedback. Discussions will now take place by the Board of Education regarding this recommendation and the next steps needed to gather community input. A copy of the presentation can be found on the district website at: www.northroyaltonsd.org.
By GLORIA PLEVA KACIK
Contributing Writer