School board approves effort to pursue land swap with city

WARREN -- The board of education authorized Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg to pursue a land swap with the city that would clear the way for construction of a new school building on the southeast side and add green space adjacent to Packard Park on the northwest side.
Under the arrangement, discussed Tuesday, the city is to provide the school board by April 21 with the 6.6-acre Wallace-Lynn Park of Willard Avenue Southeast, to complete the 141/2-acre site for a new kindergarten-through-eighth-grade building.
In exchange, the school board is to provide the 6.2-acre Turner Middle School site to the city as park land in mid-2007 once the state pays to demolish the Turner building.
The school district is involved in a $153 million construction project that will replace its 13 school buildings with five new ones by mid-2009.