Harvard Elementary will remain a neighborhood school, and Bowsher High School will be replaced under Toledo Public Schools' latest considerations for schools in South Toledo, Superintendent Eugene Sanders said.

“Scott High School, Waite High School, and Harvard Elementary are three buildings we've looked at very carefully,” Dr. Sanders said. “The fact of the matter is that they do have significant historical value for our community.

“We want to be in a position to renovate those buildings in ways that will keep them around for decades and decades and decades to come,” he said.

Byrnedale Junior High and four of the other five elementaries in the Bowsher feeder pattern could be replaced under the district's proposed options in the Ohio School Facilities Commission program.

The program has hundreds of millions of dollars available to rebuild and upgrade Toledo Public Schools if the district puts up 23 percent of the $800 million project's cost.

The state would contribute 77 percent. A levy is planned for November to raise the local share.

A second series of community forums for input about the rebuilding and renovation project begins today at 6 p.m. at Bowsher with a discussion of the elementary schools in the area. The meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday will concentrate on Byrnedale and Bowsher.

The district released proposed options for each school last year and collected public opinion and suggestions at a series of forums at each high school. After reviewing those results, the current forums were scheduled.

Having two meetings in each community on separate nights gives people a better chance to attend at least one, and splitting the elementary and junior-senior high school topics will allow for more detailed discussion, district officials said.

“We've got to get the message out that this is the most significant building opportunity that this district will ever see in our lifetime. This will never happen again, particularly where 80 percent is ‘OPM' - other people's money,” Dr. Sanders said.

This spring, the district and the state commission must agree on a master plan detailing whether its 69 classroom buildings will be renovated, replaced, or rebuilt. It should be adopted at the May board of education meeting.

“We are trying to listen to what people have to say,” said Board President Peter Silverman.

One message was that Harvard should stay as is, not become an academy, as the district proposed last year.

“It's a very strong community around Harvard. They want to keep that school as is. If that's what the community wants, obviously we're going to want the school administration and the school board to do the same thing,” said David Welch, board vice president. “Most of the data I have seen so far are supporting the idea that we preserve Harvard School.”

Another issue specific to South Toledo is the proposed gym at Bowsher High School.

For several years, the school had been promised a new gym that never was built.

If the gym is built this year, commission funds could not be used to build a new high school.

“They've been promised a new gym. They're willing to forgo that now, but they want to be moved up in the OSFC queue,” Mr. Silverman said.

The district asked people at the fall forum as well as a special meeting in February whether a new gym should be built or whether it should be delayed until the new school could be built.

People in attendance said “new school,” Mr. Silverman said.

“We floated different ideas, and that's what we heard,” he said.

First Published April 8, 2002, 11:30 a.m.