Superintendent Andrea Townsend said the district anticipates it will take approximately a year to plan and design the new buildings and two years to construct them.
“I could not be happier that we are able to have all new school facilities for our students and our teachers and our residents, all within a few years of each other,” Townsend told this news outlet. “It’s just a huge boost for our education system to be state-of-the-art buildings.”
Townsend said she is appreciative of the community members who helped make this possible.
West Carrollton voters approved a Building Bond Issue in November 2019 to build four new schools. Phase I, which is currently being completed, included construction of a new 94,854-square foot West Carrollton Early Childhood Center and a 70,840-square-foot West Carrollton Intermediate School. The early childhood center will house preschool through first grade and the intermediate school will house students in fifth and sixth grades.
Both of those buildings will be open for the first day of school on Aug. 24.
The West Carrollton project was approved by the OFCC along with four other school districts. The state share of the West Carrollton project is $124,285,706. The community share is $29,153,437. The total project is $153,439,143.
West Carrollton High School, which is 202,953 square feet, houses grades 9 through 12. It was built in 1959 with additions made in 1961 and 1968. The last major change was the addition of the auditorium that opened in 1989.
The high school is one of five school buildings in that district built before 1970. It was the last building in the district renovated, undergoing work in 1990.
The current Middle School, which is 162,141 square feet, houses grades 7 and 8. It was built in 1913 with additions made in 1922, 1935 and 1954. A major renovation happened in 1978 with the exterior being completely refaced.
The district spreads out grades 2 through 4 between three elementary schools.
“The district has moved students into grade bands for the 2022-2023 school year,” Townsend told this news outlet Friday. “Our middle school will only house grades 7 and 8 until the new buildings are built, with our elementary schools housing grades 2 to 4 as the first grade has moved to the new Early Childhood Center.”
Enrollment for the remainder of the project is expected to stay the same.
“We are just redistributing our students,” she said.
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