Wednesday 21 August 2024
the board to obtain public opinions
By William Kincaid
Photo by Ryan Snyder/The Daily Standard
Celina City Schools Board of Education members are in the midst of a $135 million construction project but still have some tough decisions to make, including whether to keep or tear down the football stadium built in 1941 and the historic field house that dates back to 1939.
CELINA – School board members plan to host a special meeting in September to solicit public input on how best to spend a limited amount of local dollars on the new grade 7-12 building campus.
Board members at Tuesday night’s regular meeting provided an overview of the status of the ongoing $135 million construction project in an effort to provide facts and dispel rumors. They also indicated they will host a special meeting to engage the community, but have not set a date.
“Celina Elementary is on budget and on time. That’s the big deal,” said board member Julie Sommer. “We will have our students learning in the new building in just a few weeks. The existing middle building is still being retrofitted and should have grades four through six in the classrooms around the first of the year.”
The new middle school/high school project is in the final design phase, with construction documents soon to be completed and then put out to tender.
“We actually get a firm no-to-exceed bid from all the contractors, and at that point we’ll have a very good understanding of how much money we have left or how much money we have to come up with.” That’s what board member Mark Huelsman said in July.
Any expenses that exceed the project budget must be covered by the district. Board members said they have done everything they can to get the most out of the money entrusted to them.
“As I’m sure you can imagine, inflation has had a huge impact on construction costs,” Sommer said.
According to board chairman Carl Huber, the new middle school/high school building will feature a competitive high school for basketball and volleyball that can accommodate 2,000 people and a high school high school.
School officials have the option of placing football fields, a track/soccer stadium, and tennis courts on the high school/high school campus.
They must decide whether to keep or tear down the historic field house built in 1939 and the football stadium that went up in 1941, both rich in nostalgic value.
Photo by Ryan Snyder/The Daily Standard
The iconic Celina High School Fieldhouse underwent a nearly $100,000 facelift in the summer of 2021.
They could tear down the field house and schedule high school basketball games in the new high school gymnasium and build a new track/soccer stadium on the grades 7-12 campus.
But no decisions have been made on an athletic facilities master plan, Huelsman emphasized again Tuesday night.
“The decision about what we do with the rest of the campus is really up in the air,” he said. “We don’t know. We don’t know what to do with the field house. We don’t know what to do with the football field. We don’t know what to do with the track. We’re forced by the state, by the budget, by inflation to use LFI funds (locally funded initiatives) so that we are not asking for more tax dollars.”
LFI initiatives are not co-funded by the state and are solely the responsibility of the district. In 2019, a local group voted to prioritize society’s wishes and needs in a prioritized list.
The campus may need to be developed over five years, he said.
“We’re going to have to make decisions as a community and as a board about what we do next and what we do next and where we spend our money because again, our funds are limited,” Huelsman said.
The district’s voters in May 2021 narrowly approved a roughly $75.9 million bond issue and a $0.5 million levy. to build a middle/high school and renovate the middle school and build an addition to house preschool and sixth grades. The total project was originally estimated at $126.8 million.
Bonds issued to raise the district’s share of the project were issued at a net interest rate of just under 2.8% and will be repaid over 37 years.
The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission signed off on releasing $51 million in state funds for the project, but later agreed to put in an additional $7.87 million to help with rising construction costs. As part of the settlement with the OFCC, the local share of the project increased by just over $7 million, according to information presented Tuesday evening.
“The match came from existing LFI dollars,” Sommer said. “This prevented the board from having to go back to the taxpayers, but it did reduce what could be done with those LFI funds.”
The move reduced the district’s LFI dollars from $21.59 million to $14.36 million.
So far, the district has spent about $7.5 million of its LFI pool on the new elementary school and remodeled middle school, Huelsman pointed out.
“As you all agree, we have a limited number of dollars to complete the construction project, but we will finish on budget,” Sommer said.
Some of the LFIs the school board agreed to include the conversion of middle school office space to cafeteria space and a metal roof on the middle school addition, Sommer said.
However, officials are not moving forward with a fixed-seat auditorium in the 7-12 building. Instead, they pursue an auditorium/cafetorium with custom-made chairs with backs and arms that retract like bleachers.
The state will now co-finance the auditorium/cafeteria filming, saving the district millions of dollars, Huelsman said.
“At this stage of the game we had to do everything we could to save money,” he said.