School district proposes trade

The land exchange could take up to four years.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown school district wants to give the city ownership of five school properties in exchange for a parcel on Teamster Drive near the district's warehouse.
The school district would demolish the five buildings and give the properties to the city with the expectation that the property would become parks and/or recreation areas, said Tony DeNiro Jr., the district's assistant superintendent of school business affairs.
The catch is the exchange would be done in phases and could take up to four years to complete, DeNiro said.
The school district properties are:
The former Bennett Elementary School, 767 Mabel Ave.
The former Jackson Elementary School, 1813 Windsor Ave.
Cleveland Elementary School, which closes later this month, 621 W. Princeton Ave.
Martin Luther King Elementary School, 706 Covington St.
Sheridan Elementary School, 3321 Hudson Ave.
Construction on new elementary schools to replace King and Sheridan won't be done for two to four years, DeNiro said.
The school district is spending about $180 million, most of it from the Ohio Schools Facilities Commission, to rebuild or renovate all functioning school buildings in the system.
What the schools get
In exchange for the school properties, the district wants a parcel at 1475 Teamster Drive, adjacent to the city street department's maintenance garage, DeNiro said. The parcel is across the street from the district's warehouse where repairs and maintenance are done to its 88 buses, he said.
The parcel would be used to store buses before and after repair work, DeNiro said. Right now, the buses park on the street and the district doesn't have adequate space for them.
The matter was referred to Youngstown City Council's education committee, and for the trade to occur, council and the school board must vote in favor of the plan.
Councilman Richard Atkinson, education committee chairman, said he has no information on the swap. But based on what he was told about it by a reporter, Atkinson said the plan sounds promising.
Atkinson, R-3rd, said he is interested in meeting with school officials to discuss the proposal.
The city has playgrounds near Cleveland and Sheridan schools.
The ideal situation, DeNiro said, is for the city to expand playgrounds near those two schools, and to build playgrounds and/or other recreational facilities on the property of the three other schools.
skolnick@vindy.com