(Photo by Douglass Huxley) Belpre City Schools Superintendent Jeff Greenley, third from the left, speaks to the Belpre City Schools Board of Education on Thursday about a $12,705 donation from the Belpre Area Community Development Foundation for the high school student council to host this year’s State Leadership Conference.

BELPRE — The Belpre City Schools Board of Education voted 4-1 to appoint Elford Inc., a Columbus based construction company, as the construction manager at risk for the district’s $45.7 million bond project to construct a new, consolidated campus for grades 6-12.

The lone no came from Boardmember Mollie Haught who said it was a personal preference on who to choose and nothing against the company itself.

“It was a tough decision,” Haught said. “But Elford will do an excellent job.”

Boardmember Cathy O’Donnell praised all of the companies for their presentation.

“I thought all the presentations were outstanding and well prepared,” O’Donnell said. “They didn’t treat us like a little district. We were a priority, and they had done a lot of homework.”

O’Donnell also said she has heard from people in the community about the new facility saying families were planning to move to the district now that it was being built.

“So that was encouraging,” O’Donnell said.

District Treasurer Lance Erlwein wanted to remind the public that although they may hear rumors the project is delayed because of tariffs or other reasons, they are in fact still moving forward.

“Although you do not see dirt moving, we are moving dirt behind the scenes,” Erlwein said. “We’ve done a lot of work. … There are no delays, no hold ups. Everything is fine. It’s on track. It’s on schedule. We feel great about it.”

Erlwein also told the board that since the last meeting, Superintendent Jeff Greenley and himself had presented to Moody’s, a financial research, analytics and credit ratings company, to get ratings for the bonds. He said the bonds have gone to the open market.

“We’ve now closed the sale on those, we’ll get the proceeds in early September,” Erlwein said. “And then that will flow right into the (Building Project Fund), so that bond money cannot be commingled with any of the other funds, it is dedicated money for the building project. It’s a great thing.”

The board also approved ticket prices for the 2025-2026 athletic season with family passes, being sold for $175. A single adult season pass will be sold for $60 and students, senior citizens and veterans will be sold for $25 a piece.

Individual event prices for all sporting events, including seventh and eighth grade events, will be $6 for adults and $4 for students, senior citizens and veterans.

Greenley said this was the same pricing as last year but that could change for next year’s sporting events.

“Based on what we’re seeing (from the) athletic committee, maybe in the spring we can take that up and look at what that could look like,” Greenley said.

The board also discussed the free lunch program being utilized by the district this year saying they have received good reports on the program.

“There’s been a lot of positive feedback in that,” Boardmember Fred Meredith said. “Now I see a lot of the other school districts are having free lunch. So I’m glad that’s happening everywhere, because every child should have a hot meal every day.”

Greenley said he didn’t have the exact numbers but he believes the district has served at least 40-50 more meals the first day of the program than it served last year.

Greenley also said it’s been a great start to the school year for the district with both buildings “buzzing with excitement.”

“It’s been a great start to the school year,” Greenley said. “We had an excellent kickoff. Kudos to our administrative and teacher teams for a tremendous first week of school.”