BEAVER SCHOOL DISTRICT Voters to decide on bond sale for new building

The new elementary would be $20.6 million of a $30 million project.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- "Building on our past, investing in our future" is the slogan for Beaver School District's campaign to build a new elementary school.
School officials are asking voters for permission to borrow $20.6 million to be paid back through the sale of bonds, to fund construction of a preschool through fifth grade building near the high school, on state Route 7 in Madison Township near Beaver Creek State Park.
The new elementary building would be the first phase of a three-phase project that would also include building a new high school and adding to and renovating the current high school to a middle school for sixth- through eighth-grade pupils.
Treasurer Robert Barrett said the bond issue and 1/2 mill for maintenance of the building would cost the average homeowner in the district about $17 per month. The average home value in the district is about $87,000 he said.
State program
The district board of education voted in August 2001 to participate in the Ohio School Facilities Commission's expedited local partnership program. With voter approval of the $20.6 million for the elementary school, the state will pay $30 million from the OSFC's state building assistance fund in 2008 to build the high school and renovate the high school to a middle school.
Barrett said the expedited program will allow the district to build the elementary while waiting for the OSFC funding. A new elementary building is needed now, Barrett said.
The district's buildings were constructed in the 1950s and are undersized. They also do not meet current codes and the cost of renovating them would be more than replacement, he said.
The new elementary buildings would replace buildings at Rogers, West Point and Calcutta. Those buildings would be abandoned, he said.
More information on the building project is on the district's Web site at www.beaver.k12.oh.us
tullis@vindy.com