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New complex will replace old buildings
South Range Educational Complex
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The South Range School District will open a new school complex to house its 1,340 students in grades kindergarden through 12 in September 2010.
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Brick masons for Lencyk Masonry of Boardman work to put in the middle school wing at the facility being built on St Rt 46 - Green Twp - at the South Range Local Schools Building Project - robertkyosay
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John Schreiber of Lencyk Masonry puts a brick and mortar in place at the South Range Schools facility being built on Route 46.
By Rick Rouan
The school is replacing 75- to 80-year-old buildings with a 200,000-square-foot complex.
NORTH LIMA — The first day of school this year for the South Range School District will start the last year in its old buildings, parts of which date back to the Great Depression.
In September 2010, the district will open a 200,000-square-foot, $38 million complex to house its entire academic operation on state Route 46 between Green and Beaver townships, said Dennis Dunham, the district’s superintendent.
“When the kids come in this year, we know it’s going to be a sentimental year,” he said.
The school is replacing 75- to 80-year-old buildings with a complex that includes geothermal heating and cooling, individual gymnasiums for its elementary, middle and high schools and a shared multimedia center and cafeteria, among other amenities.
Crews broke ground on the project in September 2008, but the bulk of progress has been most evident in the last two months when walls started to spring up, Dunham said.
“Just getting to this point was a major milestone for us,” he said.
The district purchased the 60-acre parcel in the 1970s, Dunham said, and, until the project began, it was used for baseball and soccer fields. The new complex will include varsity baseball and softball fields and a practice facility for football and soccer, but game fields for football and soccer will remain at the North Lima location.
Where those athletic fields once stood now sit construction trailers and rising walls as a 60- to 80-person construction crew tries to erect walls and a roof before the November cold settles over Northeast Ohio.
So far, Dunham said construction is on time and on budget.
The district is paying for the facility with both state and local taxpayer dollars. The Ohio School Facilities Commission is paying for 52 percent — nearly $20 million — and a local bond issue will fund the remaining $18 million, Dunham said.
“With Ohio School Facilities Commission funding half of this, it was a great opportunity,” he said.
The 7.9-mill local bond issue passed in May 2007 and will cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $250 a year.
Among the biggest upgrades to the building will be access to technology and security. Dunham said every classroom will have an overhead projector and a SMART Board, a computerized touch-screen whiteboard.
“We’ve done the best we can with the buildings we have, but everything is piecemealed together,” he said, adding that the new building will give the district an infrastructure to upgrade.
The district must decide on what it will do with the old buildings by March, Dunham said. It can either auction the buildings or demolish them with funds built into the $38 million cost of the complex.
“The mind-set people have is we want what’s best for the kids. If you keep that mind-set, you’ll be OK,” he said.
rrouan@vindy.com
The South Range School District will open a new school complex to house its 1,340 students in grades kindergarten through 12 in September 2010. It features:
Size: 200,000 square feet.
Amenities: Gymnasium for each school, geothermal heating and cooling, shared 760-seat auditorium, shared library and shared cafeteria.
Cost: $38 million.
How it’s being paid for: Ohio School Facilities Commission ($20 million), local bond issue ($18 million)
Annual cost to owner of $100,000 home: $250.
Source: School officials