SCHOOLS Austintown construction likely to begin in month

The weather delayed site development at the Raccoon Road location.
AUSTINTOWN -- The township schools superintendent expects construction of the new middle school to begin within a month.
Architects submitted plans for the new $26 million, three-floor, 174,668-square-foot building to the township zoning and fire departments for review.
A permit will be issued upon successful review of those plans, said Michael P. Kurilla Jr., zoning inspector.
The school district received a permit last October for the $1 million site development of nearly 19 acres on Raccoon Road for the school.
"The weather has slowed [the project] considerably with the rain and the snow," said Superintendent Stan Watson.
The building will house sixth- through eighth-graders. Fourth- and fifth-graders will attend Frank Ohl Middle School. Frank Ohl and Austintown Middle School now house fifth- through eighth-graders with kindergarten through fourth-graders attending one of the district's five elementary schools.
The 89-year-old Austintown Middle School on Mahoning Avenue, which formerly was the high school, will likely be demolished.
The school board borrowed the money to build the school through 2.9-mill bond issue voters approved in November 2003.
Planned classrooms
The plans show eighth-grade classrooms, offices, special education classrooms, a cafetorium, gymnasium and vocal and instrumental music rooms on the first floor.
Seventh-grade classrooms and a media center will be on the second floor with sixth-graders on the third floor.
The building will have 44 classrooms, about 900 square feet each; eight special education classrooms; seven 1,179-square-foot science labs; and two computer labs that will cover about 900 square feet each.
RP Carbone of Cleveland is the construction manager with Olsavsky-Jaminet Architects of Youngstown providing architectural services and Fanning/Howey Associates Inc. of Dublin, Ohio, the associate architects.