Mathews school board hears architects’ presentations

October 24, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

VIENNA

An architect has estimated the cost of a new kindergarten through 12th-grade building for Mathews School District at $29 million.

The architect, Steve Miller of MKC Associates, Mansfield, estimated the district’s local share at $24 million, to be financed through a bond issue of slightly more than 9 mills.

Miller said the estimate is preliminary and subject to change, due to such variables as state funding and interest rates.

Miller’s company was one of four architectural firms that made presentations to the board about providing services before the bond-issue vote scheduled for May 2014 and creating the architectural renderings if the issue is approved by the voters.

Superintendent Lewis Lowery said the amount of the bond issue has not yet been determined.

“I would hope that by either December or January, at the latest, we’d have a figure,” Lowery said.

A new structure would replace the district’s aging three buildings.

“The high school will be 100 years old in 2015, and [the two] elementary schools were built in the mid-1960s,” the superintendent said.

This would be the board’s second try for a one-building school district.

In 2009, voters overwhelmingly rejected a $22 million bond issue that would have created a similar facility on a site near Baker Elementary School.

Ken Wallace, board president, said board members feel that the K-12 building is still their best option.

“That’s our goal,” Wallace said.

Several themes were common in the architects’ presentations.

All emphasized that community support is essential and the district must determine what it wants the building to contain.

“This has to be your school,” said Byron Manchester of BSHM Architects, Youngstown.

The board’s next regular meeting is in late November when it may select the architect.

“I don’t think we can do it any earlier than that,” Wallace said.

The other firms that pitched their services to the board were Olsavsky Jaminet Architects, Youngstown, and Architectural Vision Group, Cleveland.