New buildings, programs usher in 2015-16 school year

By DENISE DICK

denise_dick@vindy.com

New SPRINGFIELD

Springfield Elementary students will be educated in a new school while another district faces uncertainty, and students throughout the Mahoning Valley see new courses and building renovations this school year.

The new 52,343-square-foot Springfield school is on the same property as the high school-intermediate school on state Route 170 in Springfield Township.

“We’re very proud of it,” Superintendent Tom Yazvac said.

Yazvac began as Springfield superintendent this month. He previously served 19 years as elementary school principal and worked with architects, other administrators and a group of teachers to design the building.

While his promotion means he won’t spend all day in the elementary building, Yazvac plans to visit each school building daily, greeting students and staff as they arrive.

The school replaces the 41,000-square-foot school in New Middletown that was built in 1923. The old school will be demolished.

In 2013, voters approved a bond issue to pay the local 52 percent share of the $11.8 million project. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission is paying the remainder.

A $5 million renovation is under way at Cardinal Mooney High School, and a new roof, new restrooms new windows and classroom renovations will greet students there.

Struthers will offer a progressive science, technology, engineering and mathematics curriculum in its elementary and middle schools this year. The Struthers STEM Academy will provide additional STEM modules in the Elementary School and will offer Engineering Technologies, a new career technical program, in its Middle School.

The new year also brings new opportunities for gifted students at Struthers Elementary.

“Our gifted testing identifies more students each year,” said Superintendent Joseph Nohra.

Youngstown City Schools, though, dominated Mahoning Valley education news this summer.

The state Legislature in late June passed the Youngstown Plan that calls for a state-paid chief executive officer to be appointed to manage and operate the district. That’s expected to happen this school year, although the plan is being challenged by some legislators and educators who are threatening legal action.

Stephen Stohla, interim superintendent, doesn’t believe students will see any of those changes this school year.

“I think at least the first 41⁄2 months of the school year should be pretty consistent,” he said.

Only the principal for Discovery at Kirkmere left the district. The other principals remain from last school year.

Rather than hire a new principal, the district combined the Discovery at Kirkmere and Discovery at Volney into one school housed at the former Volney Rogers Middle School.

Misha Scott, who served as the Discovery at Volney principal last year, will remain at Volney, overseeing both programs.

In Springfield, the new school offers separate areas for buses and parents to drop off and pick up children.

Yazvac said that’s a safety measure.

“There will be no more co-mingling of buses and cars,” the superintendent said.

The new school also requires visitors to be buzzed into the building by school personnel, through two doors. The first allows people into a foyer. A second allows visitors into the office.

Yet another buzzer-equipped door separates the office from the school’s academic wing.

The building is also color-coded by grade level chosen by the respective teachers.

Yellow is for kindergarten, purple for first grade, blue for second, green for third and orange for fourth. The music room is red, and a cool blue was chosen for the special education classrooms.

The multi-disabled classroom includes a large bathroom with a shower. The gymnasium features six adjustable basketball hoops, allowing young athletes of various sizes to shoot.

Technology also gets a boost in the new school. Each classroom includes

Internet access, a Smartboard and short-distance projector.

Classrooms are sectioned into pods by grade, too. Each grade level has an outside area to use as it chooses, for a garden for example, the superintendent said.

Each pod shares a common area for teachers to work together.

“The staff here is great,” Yazvac said. “I know everyone says that, but they really are. They’re so collaborative.”