NORTH JACKSON District considers plan for school

The district would have to pass an 11-mill levy to help finance the project.
NORTH JACKSON -- About 130 people attended Jackson-Milton school district's first State of School Summit and heard plans for a new $21 million school building.
Superintendent Buck Palmer unveiled the plans for a prekindergarten through 12th-grade facility that was recommended to the district by the Ohio School Facilities Commission. The OSFC provides funding and technical assistance to Ohio school districts for the construction and renovation of school facilities.
Palmer said that in March the district went through a 23-point OSFC Assessment.
He said the district got the results from the assessment two weeks ago and discovered that it would cost $4.7 million to renovate the elementary school to meet OSFC standards, and it would cost $6.7 million to build a new one. It would cost $11.5 million to renovate the high school and $14.1 million to build a new one.
Recommendations: Instead, OSFC recommended creating a one-building campus that would house prekindergarten through 12th grades and cost about $21 million to build. Of that total, the district would pay about a $14 million. If the school board opts for this, an 11-mill levy would be on the May ballot, Palmer said.
Architect Ray Jaminet showed tentative plans for the new building and said the building would be about 140,000 square feet and have a floor plan that would allow for expansion.
Survey: An informal survey taken at the meeting showed those attending seemed to support the new school.
Conducted by the Jackson-Milton High School chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions, the survey showed 110 attendees supported the construction of a new building, 20 wanted to keep the current buildings, and one person was undecided.
Don Booth, a Milton Township resident and former school board president, drew applause when he said the board should jump on the project.
He also encouraged people to vote, whether or not they support the issue, recalling that in 1974 only one vote decided that the elementary school would be built.