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New Warren buildings closer to reality

Provided by Warren Local Schools A page from a progress report on the Warren Local Schools district building program shows public preferences for appearance options offered by the architects for the facade of the new elementary school.

VINCENT – Kyle Newton has 95 pages of blueprints to pore over, more concrete evidence that the $71 million building project for Warren Local Schools is moving forward.

“Having those on the table in my office, flipping through them and fine tuning, it’s super-exciting,” the Warren superintendent said. “It’s unbelievable.”

The blueprints are for the first building to be completed, the new elementary school that will replace Warren and Little Hocking elementary schools. They’re the outcome of numerous public meetings and hundreds of hours of work by the architects, contractors and the district’s administrators, teachers and board members.

The district has established a section of its website for public updates on the project and held at least one public meeting a month for nearly a year specifically to discuss the project’s progress and what the residents of the district want.

“At the July meeting, we should be able to approve the elementary schematic design. It needs to be vetted by us and the OFCC (Ohio Facilities Construction Commission), and we should have all that for the regular board meeting in July,” Newton said.

Board president Debbie West said the next public meeting on the project is scheduled for July 19 at Warren Middle School, and the regular monthly board meeting will be held July 23 at the administration offices.

Public input on the project has been substantial, board member Sid Brackenridge said.

“We’ve had plenty of participation from teachers and the public, getting input into these buildings,” he said. “There’s plenty of information out there so people can comment, both negative and positive.”

The elementary school, according to the project description in the OFCC request for qualifications, will be built for about 610 students and have a floor area of just over 71,000 square feet. Brackenridge said the layout will be a “pod” style, with instructional rooms radiating out from a common area.

“I believe the teachers are happy with this layout. They had a lot of participation in choosing the furniture, the technology, all the things they’re going to be using every day. They’re leaning toward what gets them in the best position to give the kids a good learning environment,” he said. “We had a look at different options in building layout, and they’re satisfied with the pod system. It gives them different options on how they can teach kids and help each other. It’s really going to be much more effective than what we have now.”

Brackenridge also noted that the less formal layout will mean easier adjustment in the learning environment for children transitioning from elementary to middle school.

The public had extensive input in the look of the school, he said. For the facade, as an example, people were given choices about the color of tile surrounding the entrance, the signage, the design of the support structure for the entry roof – struts in the shape of a “W” or more traditional square pillars – and the roofline for the gymnasium.

“In most cases, people were overwhelmingly in favor of one thing and not another,” Brackenridge said. “And there were some things people would like but they considered the cost. Like the barrel roof for the gymnasium – people kind of liked that but obviously the extra $100,000 to $150,000 it would cost, they thought we could use that money somewhere else.”

The documents on the district website show that more than 600 people voted on the various external design options on the school, with clear preferences for the sloped gymnasium roof, uniform tile color at the entrance with square pillar supports and signage rather than a plain wall.

Brackenridge said he expects the process to move ahead on the middle school and high school buildings starting in August, with food preparation infrastructure being one part of that. The community and district will need to decide, for example, if the three schools will share common food preparation facilities or have their own.

“For some things, when everything is on one campus, you have options you didn’t have before,” he said.

The board and district are deeply appreciative of how active the community has been in the decision-making, he said.

“I think we’ll start making progress in January as to actual construction,” he said.

At a glance

Warren Local Schools building project

¯ Levy approved by voters in May 2017.

¯ Project will build a new elementary and high school on the site of the existing middle school, and extensively renovate the middle school.

¯ Project funded at $71 million, with the state providing $38 million and local taxpayers paying the remaining $23 million over 20 years.

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