Suburban News

4/28/09

Khalila Perrin

* Officials will start with science labs and security upgrades for high schools.

Columbus City Schools officials are just months away from beginning afresh on its effort to apply recently approved tax dollars to school upgrades.

Voters approved the district’s levy-bond combo, last fall giving officials the green light to continue carrying out the district’s multi-million dollar master facilities plan, designed to renovate or replace all of the district’s aging facilities. Issue 75 provided millage to raise an additional $164 million to spend on capital projects the next four years.

The district already has completed one segment and Segment 2 is nearly complete.

Bidding and planning for Segment 3 is under way now.

Officials began the bid process for architectural services for renovation or replacement projects at nine schools plus security and science lab updates to all of the district’s middle and high schools late last year the efforts and continued through this month.

The schools include Clinton, Liberty, Olde Orchard, Cedarwood, Georgian Heights elementary, the language immersion schools; Linen McKinley 7-12; Alum Crest-Clearbrook 6-12 and Starling K-8 middle school.

Construction on new and renovated buildings will begin in September 2010 and wrap in fall 2012, according to a district timeline.

Plans are already under way to begin $5 million in science lab upgrades this summer.

Prioritizing which schools receive the upgrades first, and the scope of those upgrades, is being developed now, Carol Olshavsky told school board members April 21.

Abbot Studios Joint Venture team will complete the work.

“Our thinking still is that middle schools that do not need a lot of effort could be done this summer,” she said.

“The more difficult bid projects would be developed starting in the next month with the goal doing that work over the next two summers.”

Lab upgrades could include everything from ventilation system improvements to adding sinks and storage spaces or much more involved work, depending on the needs of each building.

The upgrades won’t be co-funded by the Ohio School Facilities Commission. In the previous two segments of the master plan the district has received 30 percent funding from the OSFC. The district will receive a reimbursement from the state for the lab upgrades later, Olshavsky said.

Meanwhile, district officials plan to allow $3 million in improvements to building security to take place concurrently with the science lab upgrades at the high and middle schools and during the next three summers.

The historic Clinton Elementary ranks high on officials list of upgrades as well. The building was originally a part of a later segment, but was bumped because of the deteriorating conditions there.

As a part of its facelift, the school’s main building — built in 1922 — will be renovated and expanded

“We’ll put an additional on that to more appropriately house 400 students in grades pre-K through five,” Olshavsky said.

Another section of the building, built in 1904, will be demolished. The proposed cost of the project is $10.5 million. Students will attend school in Indianola Elementary School once construction begins.

Also a part of the Segment 3 is the consolidation of the district’s French immersion program at Ecole Kenwood and its Spanish immersion school. Officials plan to select and renovate an existing district facility to house 900 students in K-8.

“Both building are over capacity and neither have adequate middle school space,” said Olshavsky.

The addition of a third language program also is being considered. The proposed project budget is $22.3 million.

Left-over funds from Segment 2 are also on the table as district officials move into Segment 3, Olshavsky said.

Those roll-over funds, the amount of which has yet to be determined, will go toward a new facility for the Africentric Early College K-12 school currently located on Livingston Avenue Downtown. The proposed budget for the new school is $33.95 million and officials have yet to decide whether to rebuild on the existing site or choose another.

If officials opt to rebuild on the site, the Ohio Department of Transportation would partially reimbursement the district, as a portion of ODOT’s planned improvements to the Interstate 70-71 split would cut through the school’s athletic fields.

“If we have to replace any athletic facilities, we would be looking for the Ohio Department of Transportation to cover the cost of that,” Olshavsky said.

No matter where it’s built, the new Africentric will be designed to house 1,000 students in grades K-12.

“The current school holds its population, but it’s clear it wasn’t designed for K-12 programming,” Olshavsky added.