Southwest building site ID'd

WARREN -- The city school board has identified the site of Jefferson Elementary School, 903 Fifth St., S.W., as its preferred location for the new kindergarten through eighth grade building it intends to build on the city's southwest side.
By a 4-1 vote Tuesday, with board member Linda Metzendorf dissenting, the school board approved a resolution to begin negotiations to buy three vacant parcels, totaling 15.22 acres, adjacent to the school for the project, which requires more land than the current school site occupies.
Board President Robert L. Faulkner Sr. said the resolution demonstrates the board's commitment to that location, contingent on the outcome of soil testing. He said the site is desirable because the proposed school building would fit onto it well and because no residents would have to be displaced for the project.
Metzendorf said she dissented because she didn't favor passing such a resolution before completion of negotiations with the landowners to buy the acreage.
The board has embarked on a $153 million construction project that will replace its 13 school buildings with five new ones -- a new Harding High School and four kindergarten through eighth grade buildings, one in each quadrant of the city, by mid-2009.