Article published August 25, 2008
7 new Toledo school buildings ready
City district’s $640M plans are half done
The new Bowsher High School gymnasium sparkles. The $36.1 million school is one of seven new buildings the Toledo Public School district plans to open for classes tomorrow.
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THE BLADE/JETTA FRASER
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By MEGHAN GILBERT
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Jayce Ganchou used to teach his Bowsher High School students art in an old business classroom where he took a typing class — using typewriters — years and years ago.
There were bins under the tables to hold supplies for painting, drawing, and metals classes, and the students would walk across the hall to the shop room for some projects, he said.
Not in the new Bowsher.
There are storage areas between the art rooms, a kiln room connected for ceramic work, and a place to put his own shop equipment for students to use.
“I’m so happy that I’m figuring out the greatest place to put things,” Mr. Ganchou said. “I have enough room to say, ‘Nope, that won’t work there, or we can put it here or here.’”
Walking around Glenwood Elementary School, principal Jamie Johnson can’t stop smiling.
The brand-new small desks and chairs for first graders, computers in the classrooms, and equipped rooms for special-needs students couldn’t be more perfect for her “bull pups.”
“Oh, it makes me want to learn,” Mrs. Johnson said.
It will be the students’ turn tomorrow to admire the seven new Toledo Public Schools buildings opening for the 2008-2009 school year.
Elementary students will have a half day of class and middle school and high school students will have a full day of school.
Along with Bowsher and Glenwood, the district’s new buildings include DeVeaux Middle School, and Elmhurst, Sherman, Westfield, and Whittier elementary schools.
“I’ve been in all of them and they are bright and shining and offer great learning opportunities,” Superintendent John Foley said.
The new schools are part of the district’s Building for Success new-building campaign for which the state funds 77 percent of the cost and voters in 2001 approved funding 23 percent of the project with a bond issue.
With the opening of these schools, the district has 23 new buildings up and running. And it puts the district more than halfway through its $640 million building campaign.
There are nine new schools in progress: Woodward High School is going out for bid next month, and the final segment of the state-supported plan calls for 10 new schools and a renovated Scott High School.
When all is said and done, the district will have 43 new school buildings.
There is a chance that the plan for a renovated Scott could change, taking it out of the state-supported plan and renovating it with all local dollars.
If that were to happen, the state money would be used to add two small secondary schools, pushing the total number of new buildings to 45.
“Even though we’re halfway done with a number of schools, there’s a lot more to go,” district Business Manager Ron Victor said.
In addition to the state-funded new-building campaign, the district has plans to renovate schools with local money.
Those include Waite High School; the former DeVilbiss High School, which houses Toledo Technology Academy; the Old West End Academy, and Crossgates, Edgewater, Glendale-Feilbach, and Harvard elementary schools.
Last school year, Toledo Public Schools opened 10 buildings and had some problems with technology not ready to go and other fixes right down to the wire.
This year, Mr. Victor said everything is running smooth and there is just cleaning and last-minute touch-ups to get everything perfect for teachers today and students tomorrow.
“The energy that goes with opening a school, it’s kind of like fall is football season,” he said. “It’s the first days and everyone is geared up.”
The excitement about the new buildings extends beyond the teachers and students in the classrooms, Mr. Foley said.
The building campaign is also benefiting the local economy with construction work and the new buildings are attracting students back to public schools, Mr. Foley.
Leonard Brown, 16, is one of those transferring students, coming from St. John’s Jesuit High School to the new Bowsher for his junior year.
“I saw a better opportunity here,” he said after orientation.
Surprised by the sheer size of his new school — 231,953 square feet — the youth said he’s most excited about the new gym and classroom technology.
“I’m just ready to start the new school year,” he said.
Contact Meghan Gilbert at:mgilbert@theblade.com or 419-724-6134.
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