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Niles school board OKs plan to purchase school
BY JORDAN COHEN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NILES — The board of education has approved a plan that will result in the purchase of the former Mount Carmel School on North Rhodes Avenue from the Youngstown Catholic Diocese, with the state covering the entire cost.
Superintendent Rocco Adduci told the board Wednesday that the cost of $575,000 will be allocated from “swing-space funds” provided by the state to help the district house students during construction of two new elementary schools and the high school.
“The state has actually given us $875,000 in swing-space funds that can only be used for housing our students, and we have to use it or lose it,” Adduci said.
The superintendent explained that by law, swing-space funds cannot be expended for property purchase, so the state will authorize leasing the former parochial school for $575,000.
“A few months down the road, we will buy the building for one dollar,” Adduci said, adding that the remainder of the swing-space funds will go toward a new roof, a heating system and upgrading the building. The superintendent said the facility, which eventually will house the board of education offices, will be renamed within a few months.
The lease/purchase agreement means that the district will not have to lease or purchase trailers when students are moved during construction.
“Instead of trailers, we get a building,” said board member Eric Lanham. “It’s a good deal.”
Adduci said that plans call for demolishing the current Bonham and Lincoln schools at the start of the next school year. Niles students will then be shifted to the following buildings:
- Kindergarten: Jackson Elementary.
- First and second grades: the North Rhodes Avenue building.
- Third through fifth grades: Washington Elementary.
Last November, Niles voters approved a bond issue to cover the local share of more than $16 million for the three school buildings. The balance of the $60 million project is being financed by the Ohio School Facilities Commission.