Board OKs pact to study school sites

A high school bond issue was defeated in August.
GIRARD -- The board of education has approved a $9,750 professional services contract to analyze the feasibility of potential sites for a new high school.
The contract is with a Willoughby-based company named Then Design, which will evaluate two sites proposed by a site selection committee -- one on Moser Road near state Route 11 and the other on city-owned land adjacent to Tod Park.
If those sites aren't satisfactory, the firm will examine two other locations, which haven't been publicly announced, Superintendent Joseph Jeswald said after Wednesday's board organizational meeting.
Girard voters rejected by a large margin in August a bond issue for the $5.4 million local share of building a new junior-senior high school complex at the Mahoning Country Club to replace the current 82-year-old high school. The state would have contributed $21 million toward that effort.
That issue also would have included $4.6 million to buy the 117-acre golf course and $1.6 million to maintain the new school -- aspects of the project the state wouldn't financially support.
Meeting on Saturday
The board will conduct a work session at 9 a.m. Saturday at its offices to discuss its goals for 2006.
Rejoining the school board were former members Jane A. Harris and Dr. Edward E. Semple Jr., who were elected in November after having been off the board for two years and 19 years, respectively. They were sworn in Sunday at Girard City Hall by Judge Thomas Swift of Trumbull County Probate Court.