The team took advantage of Troy’s offering of “lots of buildings to inspire the look of the new buildings … There is a lot here to be inspired from,” Ruetschle said.
Among detail elements being pulled from the existing buildings for new building include columns, recessed porches, larger windows, center entries and wings.
The building sites will be the Hook Elementary School location for the North Elementary; Cookson Elementary School location for the East Elementary; property off Ohio 718/McKaig Road for the West Elementary; and property off Swailes Road for the South Middle School fifth and sixth grade buildings. The elementary buildings will house grades prekindergarten through grade four.
These structures will replace Hook, Cookson, Concord, Heywood, Kyle and VanCleve schools, which will be removed. The Forest building on the city’s east side will be retained and repurposed.
The design of the North and East buildings is first, beginning in June with plans to begin construction in summer 2025 and completion in December of the 2026-27 school year. Students at those new schools would be moved next door from the existing Hook and Cookson buildings, which then would be demolished. By summer 2027, those two sites would be complete.
Design of the West and South buildings will begin in September with building construction to begin in spring 2026 and completion in summer 2027. The district would be redistricting all of its elementary schools in summer 2027, Ruetschle said.
Updates to the high school, including an air conditioning project, are under design. This work is scheduled to begin in summer 2026 and should wrap up in summer 2027.
The final phase will be abating and removing the other buildings that no longer will be used.
The elementary schools’ design will be close to identical, Ruetschle said.
Other work has been developing a program of requirements to determine the number of classrooms and other spaces needed in the new buildings such as kitchen and dining rooms, administrative and library space, extended learning areas and outdoor learning space.
Sue Borchers, board president, pointed out that each new school will have different square footage based on the projected enrollment at each school. “This exercise had to be done for each school” based on Ohio Facilities Construction Commission requirements, she said.
The middle school will be different based on the needs of students at those grade levels and more square footage per student allowed by OFCC in a Middle School building, Ruetschle said.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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