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Ground broken for new MCESC
Mahoning County educational service center breaks ground for
By Denise Dick
CANFIELD
By early 2017, the Mahoning County Educational Service Center expects to move into a new building on property behind the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
Board members and administrators from both centers as well as city officials attended a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for the $8.5 million building that will be financed over 28 years. The building will be owned by the career center and leased by the ESC.
“But it will be a cost savings in the long run,” said Ronald Iarussi, superintendent for both centers.
Once the mortgage has been paid off, the building will be owned by the MCCTC. None of the costs is being passed on to member districts.
The ESC is housed in space owned
by Cocca Development in the Southwoods Center. The center pays $10 per square foot for the roughly 25,000-square-foot space.
The new building will be about the same size, and the rent will be about the same.
“It will be more conducive to what our needs are,” Iarussi said.
MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown is the criteria architect. Hammond Construction of Canton and Olsavsky Jaminet of Youngstown are the design and construction team.
“In the center of the county, we’re going to have a state-of-the-art educational center not only for students but also for staff,” said Richard Scarsella, president of the MCCTC board and a member of the ESC board.
The two centers share all of the same board members except the MCCTC has two additional members from Campbell and Struthers. ESC board members are elected by county voters and appoint themselves to the MCCTC board.
A few years ago, the centers began sharing a treasurer, and about a year ago, when Roan Craig, formerly MCCTC superintendent, retired, Iarussi, then ESC superintendent, became superintendent of both.
Scarsella said the two entities sharing administrations and soon a complex serves as “a living example of us being proactive rather than reactive.”
Iarussi said the new building will allow professional development for teachers and administrators. The Joyce Brooks Center inside MCCTC can accommodate up to 300 people. Other conference rooms in the new, two-story building will hold 50. The new building also will incorporate up-to-date technology, the superintendent said.
The ESC includes 19 member districts and five others that purchase particular services from curriculum and instruction to preschool. They include all 14 Mahoning County school districts as well as districts in Trumbull, Columbiana and Portage counties.