$95M ‘showcase’ high school nears completion in city

Officials in the Fairborn City Schools are looking to finish work on the new high school by the end of this month.

The project, estimated at $95 million, is more than 90% done at the 214,000 square foot facility on Com- merce Center Boulevard near Interstate 675, said Jeff Patrick, Fairborn’s business operations director.

May 31 is the district’s “substantial completion date,” he said.

“That means all safety inspections have been com- pleted and passed, which means then we officially start to move into that build- ing” the following week,” Patrick added. “If every- thing stays on track, I expect that we would meet that.”

Safety inspectors have been on site and some new furniture has been moved to the school, “an enormous site” with three wings, about 60 classrooms, a 1,000-seat performing arts center, an arena that seats 2,100 and auxiliary gym, he said. Aug. 15 is Fairborn’s first day for staff while classes are set to start Aug. 23 for stu- dents in grades 1-12. A ded- ication ceremony is sched- uled for July 17.

“It will be really a show- case high school in the Miami Valley area,” Fair- born Mayor Dan Kirkpat- rick said. “It’s really a fan- tastic thing.”

Voters approved a 5.83mill bond issue in 2020 to pay for the new high school, arts center and athletics complex in conjunction with the Ohio Facilities Construc- tion Commission funding.

Once estimated to cost $70 million, the price of the project had grown to $82 million due to inflation, officials have said.

The district scaled the project back, putting some athletic facilities on hold, such as softball and baseball fields and tennis courts.

Those plans were reinstated after voters approved a 34-year bond issue in the spring of 2023. Last fall, the school board voted to add a $3 million indoor multisport facility also postponed due to increasing costs.

The 11,000 square foot site will be built between the home stands and the fieldhouse, separate from the new high school, Fairborn Treasurer Kevin Philo has said. That facility won’t be finished until this fall, Patrick said.

School district officials said a tax issue approved last spring would generate about $24.6 million and money not spent on the high school will be used to fund a new middle school.

It will be built on Commerce Center south of the new high school, according to the district.

That school will be closest to the new high school’s academic wing, a two-story section. The middle of the new high school includes administrative offices and a performing arts area, Patrick said. Band, orchestra and choir classrooms are in this section, along with the performing arts center, he said.

Furthest north is the arena and the auxiliary gym, according to Patrick.