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Building of schools nears completion in Youngstown
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WALLS RISING: Workers from Lencik Masonry in Boardman lay cement block as the walls of the new Wilson Middle School in Youngstown begin to take shape. The new school is being built on the same site as the former Wilson High School which was razed as part of a $190 million rebuilding program.
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Youngstown City Schools superintendent Dr. Wendy Webb
The district also demolished 12 buildings and is looking at razing five more in the $190 million improvement project.
By Harold Gwin
YOUNGSTOWN — Old schools are coming down as new buildings continue to go up in the city school district.
Work is nearly done on a new Volney Rogers Middle School on South Schenley Avenue, which is to open this fall, and construction on Wilson Middle School on Gibson Street, which won’t open until fall 2010, is on track, said Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs.
Meanwhile, the district is tearing down old, unneeded structures as part of the overall improvement project.
The Volney and Wilson structures are buildings Numbers 12 and 13 in a 14-school, $190 million improvement program in the district.
Both have price tags approaching $11 million, with the Ohio School Facilities Commission picking up 80 percent of that cost.
Building Number 14 was to be a new Rayen Middle School, but that plan was scrapped when the OSFC determined that continued declining enrollment in the city schools made the new building unnecessary.
Superintendent Wendy Webb has since announced plans to develop a Rayen Early College Middle School to prepare students for entry into Youngstown Early College, a high school program run in conjunction with Youngstown State University and located on the YSU campus.
The middle school will open this fall in space at the Choffin Career and Technical Center on East Wood Street, but the plan is to eventually move it into the former Judge William Rayen Building on Wick Avenue, which now houses part of the district’s central offices.
That will require some renovations, DeNiro said, adding that any leftover construction funds in the overall project can be used for that purpose.
No remodeling cost estimates have been secured yet, and the district doesn’t know how much money, if any, will be left in the construction account to fund the Rayen plan, DeNiro said.
The district is demolishing old, unnecessary schools, with the OSFC also picking up 80 percent of that cost.
The school board has recently approved a plan to seek bids for the demolition of the old Hillman School on West Myrtle Avenue.
That job is expected to cost about $190,000. That’s on top of an asbestos-removal contract for the building recently awarded to Environmental Protection Systems of Girard at a cost of $75,300.
The board has also awarded a demolition contract of $177,300 to Moderalli Excavating Inc. of Poland to tear down the old West Elementary School on North Hazelwood Avenue.
That comes on top of an asbestos abatement contract for West awarded to Environmental Assurance Co. of Avon, Ind., in the amount of $652,800. That’s well below the engineering estimate of $2.2 million for that work.
Steve Ludwinski, senior project manager for Heery International Inc., the district’s construction project manager, said there is a substantial amount of asbestos in West but significantly less than originally estimated, resulting in a favorable bid.
Tearing down West has been delayed a bit because the building has been serving as the temporary home of the Volney Rogers school while a new Volney was being built.
DeNiro said educational materials are being moved from West to the new Volney now, and the district must be out of the building by the end of the month so asbestos removal can begin.
The old John White School on Lyden Avenue is next on the district’s demolition list.
The board is seeking bids for asbestos removal from that structure, with the cost expected to be about $200,000.
That may be followed by the demolition of the old Princeton building on Hillman Street and the Adams School on Cooper Street.
Buildings already razed were Martin Luther King, Jackson, Cleveland, Bennett, Rayen, East, Wilson, Taft, Harding, Bunn, Volney Rogers and North.
gwin@vindy.com