This is the first of a series of stories that will discuss the Middletown City School District’s planning and developing process that has been involved in creating new schools for the district. Next week’s story will discuss how the district’s future enrollment population is forecast, and how those numbers can influence the amount of money the district will receive for the building project.
A new competition gymnasium to replace Wade E. Miller Gym, a revamped Tiger Ellison training complex, a renovated and expanded high school and a brand new middle school are all pieces of a master building plan Middletown City Schools officials would like to execute in the next few years.
But first, district officials and the Middletown Board of Education will spend the next several weeks crunching numbers, analyzing data, weighing construction options and figuring out how to fund such an enterprise. District officials took their first step toward getting those plans off the ground this week when they began interviewing several architectural and construction management firms in hopes of creating a professional team that would help them through the building process.
George Long, the district’s business manager, announced Monday that the Fanning Howey architectural firm and the Quandel Construction Group would be recommended by the school board’s search subcommittee.
“As we continue to explore our long range plan for facilities, it is important to develop partnerships with successful, foreword thinking companies. Fanning and Howey and Quandel both have a great deal of experience and will be extremely helpful to the district planning team,” said Superintendent Greg Rasmussen.
A formal resolution will go before the school board when it reconvenes on Dec. 3. From that point, Long, district treasurer Kelley Thorpe and the district’s attorneys will then begin negotiating for the two companies’ services.
“There’s a lot still up in the air, but it will come together I think, especially once we have these partners (Fanning Howey and Quandel) together. That will really help,” board and search committee member Katie McNeil said. “I think both will work well with the facilities committee, and they will know how to meet the community’s standards that have been set for the future schools.”
Through a series of Facility Committee meetings held in February and March, combined with community forums that were held in March and April and student input, the groups decided on the following:
• The Verity school site was a viable site for the new Middletown Middle School.
• That same site wasn’t big enough have both a new middle school and a new high school located there.
• The majority favored a project that addressed both of those above-mentioned facilities.
• Barnitz Stadium would remain where it is currently.
• An auditorium is extremely important and should be included in all building plans.
• A competition gym at the new or renovated high school is preferred over maintaining the present Wade E. Miller Gym.
The idea was that by the time the Ohio School Facilities Commission would offer money from the state for building new schools, Middletown City Schools would be ahead of the game with its building plan already in place.
But with an 89-year-old middle school rapidly deteriorating, district officials decided that change needed to be made sooner than originally expected. The plans changed a bit in January when a community study suggested going ahead with building a new middle school.
“I haven’t seen the response back from the Ohio School Facilities Committee,” McNeil said. “I think both will work well with the facilities committee, and they will know how to meet the community’s standards that have been set for the future schools.”
According to the three project options the district is considering at this time, the building project could cost $29.5 million just to demolish the current middle school and rebuild a new one.
The cost would be approximately $39.3 million if a new middle school is included along with paying for renovations and expansions to the high school and the Tiger Ellison training complex.
And finally, if all the planned work were done without state funding, the price tag for the entire operation would be $79.5 million.
“I’m not sure that these numbers are good until the construction manager and the architect are able to go over those figures,” Long said. “The number that scares me the most is this renovations and expansions piece, because it is so vague.”
Long hopes to begin a series of programatic studies with school faculty and staff to get more details on what is needed in a new school.
“A programatic study is the discussion of the delivery of an education,” Long said. Once he can get the teacher’s feedback, Long will then be able to go back to the Facilities Committee to determine whether those specific teachers options are feasible. He can then work with the architect and construction manager regarding the feasibility of such options.
The district is consulting with DeJong & Associates in an effort to learn what their projections are for the district’s future student enrollment numbers. Long says it’s those numbers that play a key role in determining how much funding the district will receive from the state for the construction project.
The next step in the building process is supposed to take place when the search subcommittee addresses the school board on Dec. 3.
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