Renovated schools are ready to open

Sunday, August 20, 2006 Declining enrollment changed construction plans for other buildings. By HAROLD GWIN VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER YOUNGSTOWN — Kirkmere Elementary School pupils who attended classes in the old West Elementary on Hazelwood last year will be back in the new and improved Kirkmere on Kirk Road this fall. Renovating Kirkmere and adding a gymnasium to the building were part of the Youngstown City School District's $182 million rebuilding program. The Kirkmere project alone had a price tag of $7 million. The Ohio School Facilities Commission picked up about 80 percent of all costs except for the gym. The state doesn't fund gymnasiums, and that was a locally funded initiative. Classes begin Sept. 5 at Kirkmere for about 500 children in kindergarten through the fourth grade, and district employees have been busy moving materials back into the renovated structure. It's not the only school in the rebuilding program slated to open this fall. Another one A new P. Ross Berry Middle School is scheduled to open its doors Oct. 31 on Bryn Mawr Avenue, said Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent of school business affairs. That $13 million structure is being built to house up to 700 pupils in grades five through eight. Pupils have been attending the East Middle School on East High Street while Berry was being built. East's future is limited. As soon as that building is vacated, it will be razed to make way for a new football field and parking lot for the new East High School going up behind it, DeNiro said. The high school, a $30 million project, is scheduled to open in fall 2007. Youngstown has already opened new Harding, Taft, West and Williamson elementary schools as part of the rebuilding program. Their combined price tags were about $38 million. A renovated and expanded Chaney High School is scheduled to open in fall 2007. That job has a cost of about $25 million. The Choffin Career & Technical Center is undergoing a $10.5 million renovation and expansion slated to be finished for fall 2009. The new section of Choffin is completed and will open for students this fall as the renovation of the old section begins, DeNiro said. That leaves five other buildings on the district's list: P.C. Bunn Elementary, North Elementary, Wilson Middle School, Volney Rogers Middle School and Rayen Middle School. The existing Rayen and Wilson high schools will be razed, leaving Youngstown with just two high schools in the future. Enrollment effects A specific timetable for completion of the five remaining new buildings isn't in place yet. The OSFC insisted that the structures be downsized to correspond to a declining enrollment. Youngstown has lost about 3,000 pupils over the last several years, dropping to an enrollment of just under 9,000. Most went to charter schools, but some took advantage of open enrollments to go to other area public schools. The state has estimated that the city schools will lose an additional 400 pupils this year. The change in size meant that all five of the remaining buildings have to be redesigned, and that is expected to delay construction about one year. Their revised combined price tag is about $45.5 million. gwin@vindy.com