West Carrollton to decide on new schools

If decision made to rebuild, bond issue likely to go to voters.

The district has been negotiating with a firm interested in contracting with it to see if its school buildings need replaced.

The West WEST CARROLLTON — Carrollton City School District has been negotiating with a firm interested in contracting with it to see if its school buildings need replaced.

The district is working with a Minster firm for the “pre-bond” phase as officials move forward in a process with the Ohio School Facilities Commission, which helps fund new school buildings.

The majority of West Carrollton’s school buildings are more than 50 years old.

If the district – which includes parts of Miami Twp. and Moraine – contracts with Garmann Miller Architects and Engineers and a decision is ultimately made to rebuild schools, voters likely would not be asked to approve a bond issue until the November 2019 election, said Jack Haag, West Carrollton schools business manager.

A contract with Garmann would offer a “third-party assessment” to see if a 10-year-old state review of West Carrollton’s school buildings is still accurate, he said.

The district must decide “if we’re going to be remodel our current buildings or build new buildings,” Haag said.

“If it’s coming down to building new buildings, then there will be a lot of community input,” he added. “We’ll listen to what our communities and our municipalities have to say about it – about possible site locations and configurations and (perhaps) a redesign of our district.”

All but one of West Carrollton’s seven schools are more than 50 years old. The one most recently built – Harold Schnell Elementary – opened in 1969 as Valley Hills School, records show.

The other six opened in 1965 or before, including C.F. Holliday in 1950, Walter Shade Early Childhood Center in 1954, Frank Nicholas in 1957 and the high school in 1960, according to a history written by Dickinson T. Guiler.

The most recent renovation or addition was at the high school in 1990.

Garmann was selected over Ruetschle Architects of Dayton and Levin Porter Architects of Miami Twp.

Specifically, a contract with Garmann would involve “master planning services to prepare a district-wide facilities and educational plan working with the Ohio Facilities Schools Commission,” according to a measure approved by the school board.

Ten years ago West Carrollton considered pursuing plans with the state facilities commission, but opted against it, officials have said.

Since then, the state has become more flexible with construction projects, allowing districts to replace one or a few buildings, rather than all of them.