Warren schools need more space

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

The Warren city schools administration hopes to learn within a month what assistance the Ohio School Facilities Commission will give the district to cope with its overcrowding problem.

Because of incorrect estimates provided by the Ohio School Facilities Commission on how many students the district would have when school started this year, changes were made to the amount of classroom space constructed in the McGuffey K-8 building on Tod Avenue Northwest and Jefferson K-8 building on Tod Avenue Southwest.

Each building originally was going to hold 644 students, but extra classrooms eventually brought capacity up to 750.

The extra space cost the district $3.7 million because the enrollment estimates were about 900 students too low, said Aaron Schwab, communications director for the school district.

The district has about 5,450 students in the district. The state estimated it would be 4,500 to 4,700, Schwab said.

The additional classrooms were not enough to accommodate enrollment, so additional classrooms still are needed, Schwab said.

The first question the state must answer is whether it will reimburse the district for part of the $3.7 million in extra construction so far, Schwab said.

The other question is whether the state will pay for part of the cost to construct additional classroom space still needed, Schwab added.

The state paid for 81 percent of the construction costs associated with the initial project, which culminated with the opening of the McGuffey and Jefferson buildings at the start of school last month.

McGuffey and Jefferson were the last two of five new buildings the district built to replace 19 former school buildings. The district passed a $40.7 million bond issue in 2003 to pay the local share of the $153 million project.

The McGuffey and Jefferson buildings both have a space where additional classrooms can be added in a seamless manner, Schwab said.

The district is coping with its overcrowding problem by converting several large classrooms into multiuse areas, Schwab said. For example, there are a couple of large special-education rooms that have been divided so that they can be used for two types of special education, Schwab said.

There are no classrooms in hallways, janitor’s closets or trailers in the parking lot, Schwab said.