YOUNGSTOWN School projects

The Youngstown Board of Education acted Tuesday to move along its $173 million facilities project. The board:
U Approved a policy requiring construction companies hired for the project to make good-faith efforts to achieve the district's hiring goals. The board wants 20 percent of the workers to be minorities, 20 percent women and 50 percent school district residents.
The policy says bidders for work must show that they employ minority, female or district residents or at least take several specific steps to try to find such workers.
"We need to get this policy in effect so we can get bid contracts out," board President Lock P. Beachum Sr. said.
U Asked architects to move forward with designing a $1 million auditorium for the new East Side high school and to work on plans to pump $600,000 in improvements into the Chaney High School auditorium.
Initially, because the state does not help pay for auditoriums, the school district was not going to do either.
But in January, the board unexpectedly received nearly $7 million in stock when Anthem Insurance Companies Inc. converted to a stock insurance company. The district plans to use part of the windfall to fund the auditorium projects.
U Agreed to seek bids to demolish Harding and Taft elementary schools this summer. New schools will be built on those sites.
U Approved paying $57,000 plus utilities to lease the former Jefferson Elementary School in Brier Hill from an Akron church through June 2004. Pupils from Harding will attend classes at Jefferson while their new school is under construction.