SCHOOL DISTRICT Board plans to seek bond issue

Low interest rates helped the schools construction project.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The board of education is preparing to ask voters to approve a bond issue to raise an additional $4 million for its schools construction and renovation project, but it wouldn't cost the property tax payers any additional money.
The board approved a resolution Tuesday to put the issue on the Nov. 2 ballot. Once the county auditor determines the millage needed to raise that money, the board would have to pass another resolution before Aug. 19 to get the question on the fall ballot.
Voter approval is being sought for the extra money because the project expanded from $163 million to $200 million when the Ohio School Facilities Commission determined that several buildings originally scheduled for renovation should be replaced.
Formula used
The OSFC uses a formula that says a building should be replaced if the renovation cost would exceed two thirds of the replacement cost.
In late June, OSFC approved the expanded $200 million project, which will give the district an entirely new set of buildings, with the exception of Chaney High School and Choffin Career Center, which are being renovated and expanded.
The extra $4 million bond issue wouldn't cost taxpayers any additional money because the board has paid down more than that amount on the original $33 million bond issue voters approved in November 2000, Treasurer Carolyn Funk explained.
That issue, which is being used toward the local share of the project, has been paid down faster than expected because of lower-than-expected interest rates, she said. Most of the money for the project is coming from the state.
Waiting for new building
Interim Superintendent Wendy Webb, who will become superintendent Sunday, said the new Taft Elementary School will be ready for occupancy when classes begin Sept. 7, but the new Harding Elementary School isn't expected to open until about the first week of October.
The nearly 500 pupils who will be attending Harding will report Sept. 7 to the Jefferson School building on Virginia Avenue in Brier Hill and remain there until the new Harding building is ready. "It'll be tight, but everybody will be in that one building," she said of tight space at Jefferson.
Weather-related construction delays and delays in delivery of construction materials slowed the Harding project, she said.
"It is an honor to serve the students of Youngstown City Schools, and I would like to beat the drum for these students," Webb told the board. "They are not victims unless they allow people to make them victims. They are not children at risk. They are children of promise. It's our obligation as adults to make sure that that promise is fulfilled."
The board's next meeting will be at 7 p.m. Aug. 10 in its offices at 20 W. Wood St., with a caucus at 6 p.m.