District seeks bids for project

All pupils will soon be on one campus. By PETER H. MILLIKEN VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF NEWTON FALLS -- The school district is seeking bids for the final phase of its $20 million construction and renovation project. The bid deadline is 1 p.m. Nov. 16 for the renovation of the vacant former middle school at 907 Milton Boulevard into a kindergarten through second grade building. A pre-bid conference will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in the high school auditorium. The work on what will become the K-2 building, totaling an estimated $5,441,726, will include addition of a cafeteria, kitchen remodeling, enlargement of rooms, new floors and furniture and a complete heating and cooling system renovation. An asbestos abatement is likely to be completed there at the end of this week, said Superintendent David Wilson. The renovation work in the early-1970s vintage building will likely begin around Dec. 1 and be under way for about a year, he said. Pupils will probably move there at the beginning of the 2007-08 school year, Wilson said, adding that he would be reluctant to move pupils in the middle of a school year. Kindergarten through second-grade students are housed in Arlington Elementary School, 227 Arlington Road. School officials have not decided what to do with that building when it is no longer needed as a school, said Wilson, a former city councilman and mayor here. Project's components In other parts of the project, the school district opened a newly built middle school for grades three through six at 905 Milton Boulevard in August 2004. Renovations were completed in the junior and senior high school building at 909 Milton Boulevard at the beginning of this school year. When the entire project is complete, all Newton Falls pupils will be educated on the same 87-acre campus. "I'm excited about this because the school system is the center of all activities in Newton Falls, and what we have brought to our students here is state-of-the-art education. We've done it within the budget," he said. "My kids have graduated from this school. I have my grandchildren starting here," he said. Eighty-one percent of the $20 million project is being paid for by the state and the remainder by a local bond issue. Ricciuti Balog of Youngstown is the architect, and URS Kreitsburg of Akron and Pittsburgh is the construction manager. milliken@vindy.com