Ravenna Board of Education will meet June 9 to consider a new elementary building proposed near Ravenna High School.
The board previously had announced a special meeting for May 26 to approve the building project.
The June 4 meeting will be 4 p.m. at the board office, 534 Summit St. in Ravenna.
Friends of Ravenna Schools also plans a community meeting June 4, to help residents learn about the project. Those planning to attend the 6 p.m. event at the high school are encouraged to submit questions through an online form, and organizers said pre-submitted questions will be given priority due to time constraints.
Proposal for new building
The district presented the plan for the school April 22 in its State of the Schools address. The address is available to replay on YouTube.
The building would be an addition to the high school for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Seventh and eighth graders will move to the high school this fall, which means all district students, except preschoolers, soon will be educated in one building.
District officials said the building will be constructed using mostly state funding, plus money the district now uses to maintain the aging buildings in the district.
The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission has offered to pay 76% of the cost of a new Ravenna school. The district was told that the building would cost about $45 million, with about $32 million covered by the state.
District Treasurer Kristen Plageman said Ravenna’s portion is a little over $11 million. Some of that would come from funds from buildings that recently were sold. The remaining money would come from an existing permanent improvement levy. After about $250,000 a year is set aside for maintenance, the remaining $700,000 would cover loan payments.
The district plans to ask voters to renew the permanent improvement levy in November.
School building closures
Last year, West Park Elementary School, the former kindergarten building, closed. This fall, kindergarteners began attending Willyard Elementary School in Ravenna along with first- and second-graders.
West Main Elementary School will close at the end of the current school year. That will set off shifts in multiple buildings.
Students in grades 3 and 4 will move to the former Brown Middle School, which will have grades 3 to 6. Those in grades 7 and 8 will move to Ravenna High School, which then will serve grades 7 to 12.
Superintendent Ben Ribelin said the building closures were part of a plan to stabilize the district’s finances. Voters approved a school levy last year, but the closures would have happened whether or not the levy was approved, he said during the State of the Schools address.
The district sold West Park and the former Tappan Elementary School, and also will close the district’s warehouse building. Central registration will be relocated to the district board office when the warehouse closes, Ribelin said.
Portage Leadership Academy, a public charter school, purchased West Park and plans to open in the fall. Education Alternatives, which has leased the Tappan building since the school closed in 2013, bought it in an auction.
The board office is in the former Carlin Elementary School, which closed in 2020. The building also houses the district’s special services, EMIS and preschool students.
The former Rausch Intermediate School, which is connected to Brown Middle School, has been vacant in recent years. That building opened in 1915 as the Ravenna Township School, and is the oldest building in the district.
Reporter Diane Smith can be reached at dsmith@recordpub.com.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Ravenna changes vote on new elementary school
Reporting by Diane Smith, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
