WARREN SCHOOLS Board launches construction project

The 1925-vintage Harding auditorium will be preserved.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The board of education formally began its $153 million schools construction project Tuesday with a resolution to seek bids for the first of four new $17.7 million kindergarten-through-eighth-grade buildings.
The first new K-8 building, scheduled to open in fall 2007, is to be built next to Lincoln Elementary School on a 20-acre board-owned site off Atlantic Avenue N.E. Site preparation will begin this fall, and construction will start next spring.
The four K-8 buildings, one in each quadrant of town, together with a new $40.1 million Warren G. Harding High School, will replace all 13 city schools by mid-2009. Eighty-one percent of the project is being paid for by the state and the remainder by a local bond issue voters approved in November 2003.
After the new buildings open, the state will pay for the demolition of buildings.
Preservation
In addition to taking the first major step toward the new construction, the board heard a presentation on one of the last steps in the project -- the preservation of the auditorium, colonnade and office space in the existing Harding building -- which will cost about $1 million and be paid for with local funds.
That historic preservation effort will occur after the students are relocated in fall 2008 to the adjacent new Harding High School, said John DeFrance, an architect with Olsavsky Jaminet of Youngstown and Niles.
The work to preserve the 1925-vintage Harding auditorium will include a new exterior enclosure after the old classroom wings are demolished; exterior stone restoration; a new roof, boilers, house lights and fire alarm system; two new pairs of exit doors; seat repairs; electrical and plumbing repairs; and repair and painting of existing doors and windows.
"It is not only an historic building, but a truly finely built building, and it is a landmark, not only for the school system, but for the city, and that's reason enough to keep it," DeFrance told the board.
"It will be a wonderful auditorium for this community," said Linda Metzendorf, board president. "It will be a wonderful place to move the board of education offices to when it's finished."
The move would save the board money because it wouldn't have to maintain its current office building on Monroe Street, she said.
Home for refugees
The board also adopted an agreement to lease a board-owned farmhouse at 2642 Ridge Road, Cortland, which was formerly used for student field trips, to Stan and Jane Moore, Hurricane Katrina refugees from Gulf Port, Miss., for $1 per month from Oct. 1 to March 31, and $300 a month thereafter. The couple will pay for all utilities.
The 45 acres surrounding the house are farmed by people who lease the land from the board, Metzendorf said.
"I think it's a beautiful gesture that our school system can make and a beautiful gesture that our taxpayers can make to help one family out," said board member Edward Bolino.