The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
AREA SCHOOL RENOS RIGHT ON SCHEDULE
Lake, Cuyahoga County schools to begin school year with upgrades
When school starts in a few weeks, some students will be welcomed with facility upgrades.
Mentor Schools
Mentor Schools budgets $1.1 million each year to maintain the school’s buildings.
The funds are from a permanent improvement levy and can only be spent on permanent improvement projects, said Kristen Kirby, the district’s communications director. The district lays out projects on a five-year plan to ensure all the buildings get routine maintenance and upkeep and are kept in good condition, she said.
“This summer, pretty much every building has been impacted by some kind of work,” Interim Superintendent William Porter said. “It just depends on the building, the list ranges from parking lot resurfacing to adding playground equipment.”
Work has been done on roofs and masonry along with heating, ventilation and air conditioning units being replaced or repaired, he said.
“The things we are doing now are maintenance, because we view all of our buildings as assets to the community,” Kirby said.
The track at the athletic facility at the high school has been resurfaced.
The high school cafeteria is receiving a makeover with funds from the Straight A Stability Funds, according to Jen Skulski, the district’s director of business operations. The makeover includes lighting upgrades, painting and new furniture.
“The majority of the projects are complete and the rest should be wrapping up within the next two weeks, and there is no concern about hitting target dates before the start of School,” Skulski said.
Willoughby-Eastlake
Meanwhile, WilloughbyEastlake Schools is seeing repair work done to all the windows and doors on the buildings that are not being replaced with new constructions.
Progress is being made, but officials are unsure if it will be completed by the start of the school year. If the work continues into the year it will take place in the evenings and on weekends, according to Superintendent Steve Thompson.
However, the new stadium at North High School in Eastlake is nearing completion and is expected to be finished by the start of the school year.
Riverside Schools
Riverside Schools is also improving its football field.
A new turf will be installed at Riverside Campus with Lake Health sponsorship and permanent improvement funds. Construction began in June.
Marketing and Communications Director Nick Carrabine said that the last two months were spent preparing the field for the turf and refurbishing the track. The turf arrived July 31 and should be completed by mid-August.
The project, which includes track restoration, cost about $800,000 to complete.
“Our goal is to bring as many people to Riverside Campus as we can to create a community feel,” said Superintendent James Kalis. “We want the campus to be a true cornerstone for the entire community.”
In addition to the Riverside Stadium improvements, the district is also transitioning the John R. Williams gymnasium into an Athletic Performance Center. The Athletic Performance Center is a 3,600-square-foot weight training room and a 3,600-square-foot all-purpose floor.
“This is needed because student athletes for the past three years have been using an inadequate weight room underneath the Board Office (due to structural issues in the Field House),” Carrabine said. “The Athletic Performance Center will benefit all students taking physical education classes as well. In addition, the locker rooms are being renovated and the Gridiron Club has donated more than 90 lockers.”
These renovations are also made possible by funds from the permanent improvement fund.
While improvements to current buildings are necessary, the Riverside Facilities Plan continues to move forward. The district is meeting with Fanning Howey to finalize designs and ideas for the facilities with the hope to break ground next spring.
Wickliffe Schools
Wickliffe is also discussing the future of its facilities.
Although Wickliffe Schools’ reconfiguration plan will not begin until the 2018-19 school year, extensive planning is underway.
Superintendent Joseph Spiccia said the district is working with CT Consultants, an architectural firm, to assist with the reconfiguration.
“They are going to study what needs to be done for us to move from three buildings to two,” Spiccia said. “They are going to study the physical changes we may need to make. CT Consultants have a six phase plan to help us work through the physical changes.”
The current middle school will be converted into a grades K-6 building and the current high school to a grades 7-12 building.
“The education committee will be working throughout the year on the educational programming to ensure that we have all of the teachers and all of the staff in the right place,” he said. “One of our goals is to let all of the staff know where there assignment will be by February 2018.”
Spiccia said by early next year he wants to start taking students who are transitioning to the two buildings on tours so they will be able to see how it is set up and what it will be like.
In the meantime, several summer repair projects have taken place, including adding new windows and doors to the middle school.
Euclid Schools
On the other hand, Euclid Schools students won’t see many physical/cosmetic changes this school year except for the athletic field complex currently under construction.
“Plan W,” a component of district’s Memorial Park plan, which is a part of the “Finish the Job” project, includes:
• A new football stadium and field, located directly east of Euclid High School, south of Westport Avenue. The field will be made of synthetic turf with a projected seating capacity of about 6,500.
• Conversion of Sparky DiBiasio Stadium to a scaleddown facility for middle school football, soccer and all secondary track events. Only the center bleachers will remain after the removal of the north and south open stands. The visitors’ bleachers on the east end of the field will be significantly reduced as this facility will no longer house varsity events. Both the field and the track will be replaced.
• Three softball fields on the schools’ section of Memorial Park. Two of these fields will be of sufficient size to host adult softball leagues, while the third field will be more modestly sized, designed for scholastic competition.
• A practice football/soccer field, located just south of Stanic Field, north of Westport Avenue.
• Walking trails adjacent to these fields to ease travel between them.
In addition to the update and renovation to Memorial Park and DiBiasio Stadium, “Finish the Job” includes rebuilding Euclid High School; building a new middle school on the high school campus; building an Early Learning Village at the Forest Park site; and a conversion of Central Middle School into a Metropark property.
DiBiasio Stadium is expected to open in October and will serve as the home for all but three varsity football games this year. According to the district’s website, the stadium will also be the middle school’s home field and the varsity and middle school’s track. Temporary bleachers seating about 1,200 will be placed before football season, with the property eventually hosting 350 on the visitors’ side and about 2,000 on the home side.
The remaining bleachers will be moved to the park around the new ball diamonds. DiBiasio Stadium is nearly complete with the drainage process and has already received the final stone topping along the sideline area.
According to Euclid Schools, no new buildings will open until 2020.