McDonald board hires MS to devise plan to update school facilities

By Mary Smith

Traffic routes for parents to drop children off at school have been changed.

McDONALD — The board of education hired MS Consultants of Youngstown on Monday to evaluate all facilities and present a plan to update them, focusing on a new sports complex and other needed improvements.

The board noted that the district received a 95 percent upgrade with a compete remodeling of the high school and construction of a new elementary school with an Ohio School Facilities Commission grant in excess of $17 million.

Still left to be done, and a target for the McDonald Alumni Association and its fund-raising efforts, is a new sports complex.

It would include a football field, stadium, all-weather track, additional parking, new bleachers in the gymnasium, and a place to store district buses.

Voters have twice turned down a levy request to pay for the improvements: 4.4 mills in November 2004, and 3.9 mills in May 2005. Both were continuous permanent improvement levies.

The hiring of MS is contingent upon the board’s securing resources to pay for a facility upgrade.

In other business, Superintendent Michael Wasser noted that the district will receive an “excellent” rating when the Ohio School Report Card results are announced Monday.

He congratulated teachers, students and administrators for the hard work it took to elevate from an “efficient” rating to excellent.

School parking rules and traffic patterns will be changed starting Monday, Wasser said.

He met with police Chief Lou Ronghi to discuss solving traffic problems that have plagued the district for years. Parents will be receiving a joint letter from Wasser and the police chief in a mailing.

Changes at the high school are: Sixth and Seventh streets and Iowa Avenue will now be two-way streets at all times; students will be dropped off at crosswalks and on the high school side of the street only (Iowa Avenue west); there will be absolutely no parking on Sixth and Seventh streets and Iowa Avenue between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Violators will be ticketed by local police.

Changes at Roosevelt Elementary: One-way traffic will still be in effect at Roosevelt; pupils will be dropped off at crosswalks and doors nearest to the elementary school only; parking will be available at Roosevelt-designated parking spots and the football stadium.

Look for parking (weather permitting) near the stadium concession stand — administrators will direct you.