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Decision expected soon on selling Rayen building
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
The city school district expects to learn next week whether it will be allowed to sell or lease part of its administration building.
“We’ve discussed selling or leasing the Rayen part of the building and moving everyone out of it,” Superintendent Connie Hathorn said at a recent Youngstown School District Academic Distress Commission meeting.
The administration building on West Wood Street includes two parts. The newer section, called the Ward building, fronts West Wood Street, while the older portion, known as the Rayen section, fronts Wick Avenue.
The entire complex houses the superintendent’s, treasurer’s, human resources, security and business offices as well as the special education, curriculum and data departments, the board room and record storage.
Later this month, the district expects to learn if the Judge William Rayen Foundation will consent to the sale or lease of the Rayen portion of the building, Treasurer James Reinhard said.
The foundation provides scholarships and other funding to city school students and programs. Past contributions have allowed the district to buy new choir robes and band uniforms.
The Rayen portion is the site of the original Rayen school.
Judge William Rayen died in 1854, but his estate provided funds for a trust and the founding of The Rayen School, where all of Youngstown’s children could be educated. It was built in 1866 and became the first public school in Mahoning County. The attached Ward building was added later.
The Rayen School moved to Benita Avenue when a new building was erected there in 1922, but the school district razed the structure in 2007 as part of a 14-building school-rebuilding program.
The original rebuilding plan included a middle school bearing the Rayen name. The state, which paid 80 percent of the rebuilding costs, tossed that plan because of declining student enrollment.
The district maintains the Rayen name, though, with Rayen Early College Middle School, which is housed inside the Chaney building.
The move to sell or lease part of the building is a financial one.
A 2014 report from Youngstown architect Paul J. Ricciuti estimated the building costs the district about $540,000 annually including custodial service, utilities and repairs. The report said keeping everything as-is isn’t a viable option.