Troy City Schools to review building needs
After talking about the need for a facilities review for a few years, Troy City Schools kicked off the process last week.
After talking about the need for a facilities review for a few years, Troy City Schools kicked off the process last week.
“We have to figure out what the community wants. If you never talk about it, we won’t know,” Superintendent Eric Herman said. “We have no preconceived notion of where this is going to take us, no drawings.”
The district has aging buildings that it has been able to maintain with its 1.1-mill permanent improvement levy dollars, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to afford over time, district leaders said.
The oldest building is the Van Cleve Sixth Grade Building at 103 years and the newest, the Troy Junior High at 44 years. In between are: Cookson Elementary, 52; Troy High School, 58; Forest Elementary, 67; Heywood Elementary, 85; Kyle Elementary, 66; Hook Elementary, 50; and Concord Elementary, 97. The high school received renovations and additions in 2006.
The first to participate in the review process is an educational visioning group that is looking at education concepts. Around 30 people, including students, business leaders, educators and others, will meet on four Wednesday evenings to discuss the future of education — what it might entail, what it might require as far as facilities.
His message, Herman said, is “We do a great job now ... but is there more we could be doing.”
District Treasurer Jeff Price along with Herman spoke briefly to the visioning committee at its introduction meeting Wednesday to provide an overview of today, and why the review process was initiated.
“We are in good financial standing,” Price said. “We’ve gotten through our three cycles of renewal levies (securing voter approval). This is the time to discuss and to put forth a plan going forward.”
Following the visioning meetings, another group of community members — invited or expressing interest in participating — will be asked to meet in four sessions to talk about facilities. Those meetings likely will be followed by focus groups and more detailed discussions.
The Board of Education already has a study of the district buildings and the cost — more than $50 million estimated — to update electrical and plumbing and address air conditioning.
During the past two weeks a team for the Ohio School Facilities Commission visited the schools for a facilities assessments that will be joined by an enrollment projection study.
The district is working with the OSFC on possible funding for the yet unidentified project with a November 2017 target date for a public vote. The district at this point would qualify for 32 percent state funding of a qualifying classrooms project, if that is the option selected.