WARREN SCHOOLS Option to preserve building delays vote

The board will talk to architects about the option.
By JAYME RAMSON
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- School board members postponed a vote on a master plan for new city school buildings, citing the need to consider another option.
The board was expected to discuss the master plan Tuesday but elected to check out a potential option under which the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission would pay up to 100 percent of the costs to preserve part of Warren G. Harding High School.
Board members first heard about the option Monday night after a public meeting on the project.
Board president Lynn Gibson said she learned the OSFC has a program for direct preservation of historical buildings.
According to OSFC rules, if the cost of renovating a building exceeds two-thirds the cost of new construction, the commission recommends new construction.
"I don't think anybody wants to nix the plans of the new high school, but if there is a possibility that we can get some of this paid for, then I think we have the obligation to explore that," Gibson said.
Because of the new development, the board agreed to forward a letter outlining their questions about the option to the districts' architects, then will meet with the architects.
The administration's next scheduled board meeting is June 24, but a special meeting would convene before then.
Looking at plans
Architects presented possible ways to preserve part of the high school at a meeting last week. Costs of the projects ranged from about $919,000 to $6.3 million.
Under the OSFC option, Warren could get up to 100 percent of the costs of a preservation project, and taxpayers would not have to pay those costs in addition to the estimated $170 million district building project.
Board members agreed to talk about the new possibility before submitting a master plan to the OSFC later this month.
"I'm a historian at heart, and once it goes down, they can never recover it," board member Linda Metzendorf said of Harding.
"I would like to talk to our architects and the planners about some of our options, and I think this board owes it to the community to engage in some dialogue with this new finding."