Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Tonight, the board will vote on naming the school after architect P. Ross Berry.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City school officials will break ground Tuesday for a new middle school on the East Side.
It is the third new building the district has begun as part of its $182 million facilities improvement project.
The middle school will be one of three new or renovated schools on the East Side. The trio of buildings is being touted as a revitalization that could bring about a revival on that side of the city.
East Middle School, to be built facing Bryn Mawr Avenue, will be adjacent to North Elementary School, facing Mariner Avenue.
North will undergo renovations and additions. Plans also include a new East High School, at Parker Street and Bennington Avenue.
Funding sources
The school facilities improvement project is funded partly through $33 million in local funds from a 4.4-mill tax issue. The Ohio School Facilities Commission will pay the rest.
In addition to the work on three schools on the East Side, throughout the city several new elementary schools will be built, and remaining buildings will be renovated.
New Harding and Taft elementary schools are beginning to take shape. And Tony DeNiro Jr., executive director of school business affairs, expects construction to begin soon on not only East Middle School, but also on the new West Elementary School, the new East High School and renovations to Chaney High School.
DeNiro said he is also working with OSFC officials to see if projects can be expanded at Mary Haddow and North elementary schools, The Rayen School and Wilson High School. Plans are for both of the high schools to be transformed into middle schools.
DeNiro said the plans are bring reviewed to see if it is more efficient to rebuild than renovate at the four sites.
School name
As officials planned last week for the East Middle School groundbreaking, to be at 10 a.m. Tuesday, DeNiro said a sign naming the school "P. Ross Berry Middle School" has been made.
A group of community members had requested that the new East High School be named after Berry, but school board members sided with a group of East High alumni who wanted to resurrect the school name.
An option that surfaced was to instead name the middle school after Berry, a black architect who was responsible for many of the city's buildings in the late 1800s.
School board members will vote on that option at a special meeting scheduled for 5:30 p.m. tonight, said board president Lock P. Beachum Sr.
Also at tonight's meeting, board members will see a video overview of the new East High School and discuss bids for site work at East Middle School, East High School and West Elementary School as well as for the foundation of Chaney High School.
Media center, library
As for the new middle school, a highlight of the new 102,000-square-foot, 750-pupil building will be its media center and library, offering computer labs and placement for access by the community.
Other features are a gymnasium that seats 700, a cafetorium with seating for 350 and specialty rooms including a home arts area, an art lab, modular technology labs and separate music areas for choral and instrumental groups.
Plans are to open the school in fall 2005.
The current East Middle School, on East High Avenue, was built in 1925 as the former East High School. It would have cost nearly as much to renovate as rebuild, officials said. It is being torn down to make way for the new East High School.