Woodmore schools' design plan approved for $22M structure

Current elementary floods, is out of date

3/26/2013

ELMORE, Ohio — The Woodmore Local School District is moving ahead with its plan for a new building for prekindergarten through eighth grades in Woodville.

At its regular meeting last week, the board of education approved design documents for the planned school, which will be on State Rt. 20 between the current elementary school and McDonald's.

A groundbreaking is tentatively scheduled for May 30, Kevin Slates, the district's treasurer said. “We want to have it done before the students leave for summer,” he explained.

The $22 million building will house 750 to 800 students in two wings, with prekindergarteners though fifth graders in one wing and sixth through eighth graders in the other. Officials plan to open the building for the 2015-16 school year.

The current elementary school has about 600 students. The new building is needed because the old building, which dates to 1923, floods and is incompatible with contemporary educational technology, Mr. Slates said.

Woodmore’s seventh and eighth graders are housed in a high school wing that will be torn down after they have transferred to the new building. The old elementary building also will be razed.

Mr. Slates said the district will solicit bids in April for site work such as the stone driveway, parking lot, and building pad, and will advertise for general contracting bids in late June or early July.

Voters in the district adopted a 0.5-mill tax in March, 2012, that will pay for the upkeep of the new building.

This dedicated funding source was required by the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission to qualify for state money for the project. The school board, in turn, shaved 0.5 mills from the district's permanent improvement levy, which was renewed in November, to offset the new tax.

The new building will be financed with the proceeds from $15.7 million in construction bonds and funding from the OSFC. About 68 percent of the cost will be borne locally.

— Carl Ryan