Board mulls revision in plan for new schools

OSFC already approved the change.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The building project for all new city schools includes plans for five new kindergarten through eighth-grade buildings although they won't all include the same elements.
The school board is expected to consider a resolution at its meeting tonight to change the district's master plan to incorporate the revisions in each of the new buildings, which the Ohio School Facilities Commission already has approved.
The school board last week approved the program of requirements, or first planning phase, for the school building project. The district is building all new schools at an estimated cost of $170 million. The OSFC is paying 80 percent of the bill. Voters in November approved a bond issue to pay the rest.
Under the revision, two kindergarten- through eighth- grade buildings will include three spaces for developmentally disabled pupils; one will include three spaces for multiple-handicapped pupils; one will have space for three classes for mulitple-handicapped pupils and space for the alternative school; and one will be for pre-kindergarten through eighth graders.
What's next
The design development, outlining how each of the buildings will look and the specifics of the contents, is the next project phase.
The elementary buildings will range from about 130,000 square feet to about 136,000 square feet. The largest building is the one that includes the alternative school. All are multistory.
James Russo, executive director of business operations, said spaces for multiple-handicapped and developmentally disabled pupils were spread through the new buildings to incorporate those pupils with the rest of the student body.
Pupils that are in alternative status now attend Washington Alternative Center, Draper Street, which is likely to be demolished as part of the building project.
Russo said the pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school will likely be centrally located, allowing easy access to parents throughout the city to transport their pre-school age children.
The first site will be on property that now includes Lincoln Elementary, followed by a new school at the McGuffey Elementary property. Both schools will remain open while the new ones are being constructed.
Other sites include the Laird and Jefferson elementary locations. A fifth location hasn't been finalized. The plan is to build two kindergarten- through eighth-grade schools and the new high school in the first phase. The two remaining kindergarten through eighth-grade buildings comprise the second phase.
A tentative schedule calls for pupils to move into the first two elementary schools in August 2006 and into the new high school in January 2008.