Trailers to be trashed at Boardman schools

By Denise Dick

Six classrooms will be added at Stadium Drive, with seven added at Robinwood Lane.

BOARDMAN — What has been a staple at Robinwood Lane and Stadium Drive Elementary schools will be but a memory come the 2010-11 school year.

The classroom trailers, two at Stadium Drive and four at Robinwood, were installed in the 1960s to provide more space, not long after the schools were built.

The school board recently decided to add on to both schools and the additional classrooms provided will mean the trailers can be hauled away.

“They’re adding six classrooms, a computer lab and a library/media center,” said Jim Goske, Stadium Drive principal.

Robinwood’s addition includes seven classrooms, a music room and art room, said Don Robinson, Robinwood principal.

“We’re thrilled,” said Teresa Reilly, incoming PTA president at Robinwood, whose daughter is in second grade. “We can’t wait.”

Money to pay for the work — $2.6 million at Robinwood and $2.8 million at Stadium Drive — is part of nearly $6 million the school board plans to borrow and repay over 30 years.

After voters rejected an issue that would have allowed the district to borrow $51.5 million through the sale of bonds for building improvements, the district took another tack with a scaled-down version of improvements.

In May 2008, the school board voted to instead pursue the 30-year loan.

The district plans to use a portion of the money from a capital improvement levy renewed in 2007 to repay the loan.

The levy generates about $900,000 per year, but about $200,000 of that amount will be kept in case an unforeseen problem arises.

The $6 million also will fund a roughly $481,000 sports complex to be built behind Glenwood Middle School to be used by the wrestling, baseball and track teams.

“We’ll start construction at the end of June and plan to finish by July 2010,” said James Massey, district director of operations.

About 14,163 square feet will be added at Robinwood, and about 12,582 square feet at Stadium Drive.

“We can’t do an [Ohio Schools Facilities Commission] project because with our property valuation, our taxpayers would have to pay 86 percent of the cost.” Massey said.

OSFC provides funding to construct new schools or renovate school buildings in districts that meet certain requirements.

Robinwood’s trailers house more than 200 students, full and part-time, while 70 full- and part-time students use the Stadium Drive trailers.

Besides moving those children and teachers into the school buildings, it also will allow space for music and art. At both schools, teachers who instruct in those programs move their equipment from room to room. The art teacher pushes a cart around, and the music teacher can be seen wheeling a piano into classrooms.

“Art will be able to dry properly and be displayed,” Reilly said.

The need to shuttle children back and forth between the main building and the trailers will be eliminated, she said.

“The children have to take their coats on and off [to go back and forth], and we live in Ohio so sometimes that isn’t good,” Reilly said.

Stadium Drive also has two kindergarten classrooms that, although connected to the rest of the school, can be accessed only by going outside of the main building and back into the rooms from outside. There’s no hallway or corridor that connects the classrooms to the rest of the building.

The renovation will eradicate that problem, too.

Among the classrooms to be added at Robinwood is one each for limited English proficiency, or English as a second language, and Title 1.

“We have about 50 English as a Second Language students who are basically in a closet,” Robinson said. “We’ll have a full classroom for them.”

Title 1 students, or those who are economically disadvantaged, get their lessons in the hallways with temporary barriers used to shield out distractions. The renovation will provide a classroom for them, too.

Robinwood also will get 40 new parking spots, and Stadium Drive’s addition will allow a separation between parents picking up and dropping off their children and where the buses load and unload.

Both schools also will get handicapped accessible restrooms. The security of Stadium Drive’s entrance will be improved, requiring visitors to pass through the office and be buzzed in by a staff member to access the rest of the building.

The principals said teachers and students are looking forward to the changes. “It will be like coming to a new school building every day,” Goske said.

denise_dick@vindy.com