Sunday, April 25, 2010
By ED RUNYAN
runyan@vindy.com
WARREN
It opened in 1967 when the city was growing. It became a middle school in 1989 in a consolidation. Sometime this year, the wrecking ball will tear it down.
The former Warren Western Reserve High School building on Loveless Avenue Southwest — which once boasted a state-of-the art swimming pool and planetarium — is among seven Warren school buildings being razed.
Bids are to be opened Friday for six of them, and school board action to make the demolitions official is expected at the May 11 school board meeting, said Aaron Schwab, school district spokesman.
The district no longer needs the seven buildings. When school starts next fall, the district will be using two new K-8 buildings — Jefferson and McGuffey — and will have no further use for the old.
Patty Limperos, school board president, said there have been discussions in recent years with community groups and Warren City Council about trying to save Reserve, but nothing has come of it.
Limperos said people mention that the state deemed Reserve salvageable many years ago when discussions began with the Ohio School Facilities Commission for 81 percent state funding for five new schools to replace all of its buildings.
But in the years since then, Limperos said, the state has re-evaluated Reserve and determined that it no longer meets the “two-thirds rule.” The rule says the state will not pay for renovations to any building if the cost is more than two thirds of its replacement cost.
Councilwoman Helen Rucker says she believes the school board failed to follow through with a promise to meet with city council’s education committee to further discuss the costs of saving the building, but Limperos said there are two important reasons why the building cannot be saved.
First, the pool is in “horrible shape” and would cost an “astronomical” amount of money to bring up to date. The planetarium and other parts of the building also would cost a huge amount to repair.
The building’s utility costs are high. It doesn’t have air conditioning, and it always has been an expensive building to maintain, Limperos added.
Secondly, the state would require the school board to offer the building to a charter school before it could consider selling it to any organization desiring to use it for recreation, Limperos said.
Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.