SCHOOL PROJECT Building plans await approval

The school facilities project has grown by $35 million.
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio School Facilities Commission plans to vote Thursday on the revised $198 million construction and renovation plan for the Youngstown city schools.
Superintendent Benjamin McGee and Anthony DeNiro Jr., the school district's executive director of business affairs, will go to the commission meeting in Columbus that day prepared to answer questions about the revised plan.
DeNiro said the revised plan has the support of the commission staff, and he thinks the commission's vote will be favorable.
The revised plan calls for one renovated and seven new elementary schools, four new middle schools, a renovated Chaney High School, a new East High School, and a renovated Choffin Career Center. Five elementary buildings will be demolished.
Beyond the $198 million subject to state approval, the district has added $6 million worth of projects for which the district must pay the total costs, including auditoriums at both high schools, bringing the total to $204 million.
Reason for revision
The original plan, which was authorized in 2000, was a $163 million renovation and construction project that would have included only six new buildings.
OSFC officials said recent reassessments of six buildings to be renovated, however, showed it would be more efficient to rebuild them from scratch.
State officials say a building should be replaced if the cost of renovating it exceeds 67 percent of its replacement cost.
Concerning parts of the plan that are already under way, DeNiro said the new Taft Elementary School will definitely be ready for occupancy at the beginning of the 2004-05 school year, and the district hopes the new Harding Elementary School also will be ready to open then.
"Taft is further along than Harding," he said, noting that Harding is a two-story building and its construction was delayed by adverse weather.
Taft is a one-story building. Construction crews are working Saturdays to get both buildings ready for occupancy, he added.