DPS approves $1 million contract to demolish two former schools

Dayton’s school board on Tuesday approved a $1.01 million contract with Gilbane Building Company to demolish the former U.S. Grant and Valerie Elementary school buildings, which sit vacant.

The former Valerie building at 4020 Bradwood Drive (near Philadelphia and Turner), was constructed in 1966 and closed in the summer of 2018. The Grant building, at 4309 Arcadia Blvd. (off South Smithville), was built in 1936 and closed as a Dayton school before 2000, serving mainly as storage space since then.

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Both buildings have been undergoing asbestos remediation in recent months, according to school officials.

• The board approved the sale of the vacant former Gettysburg School site, at 2201 N. Gettysburg across from Kings Highway, for $29,333 to Clayton Kantner of Loveland, who bought five other DPS properties months earlier, saying he hoped to do commercial redevelopment.

• A pair of $250,000 contracts were approved with architectural firms Levin Porter and LWC (Lorenz Williams) at Tuesday’s board meeting. Those contracts are the first steps toward significant building improvement projects that the district has discussed for the past two years. Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said district Business Manager Gary Dickstein will give a presentation about project plans at the May board meeting.

• The resignations of Kemp Elementary Principal Stacey Maney and Thurgood Marshall High School Principal Monica Utley were approved, effective June 30. Former Thurgood principal Sharon Goins was approved for a switch from the associate director of STEM education job she took last summer, to director of diversity and inclusion. Also, DPS director of health services Cynthia Abbott is resigning that role to return to a school nurse job, according to Lolli.

• The school district is still discussing possibilities for upcoming graduation ceremonies of any kind. Lolli said if the district can’t have any event where the Class of 2020 can wear their caps and gowns, DPS will work with their vendor on refunds for families who already bought those items.

• DPS is canceling the remainder of a $475,000 contract with the University of Virginia’s Partnership for Leaders in Education to turn around five lower-performing schools, according to Lolli. Board President Mohamed Al-Hamdani said Tuesday that the program “came in with a lot of hope.” But Lolli said the schools in question were not seeing sufficient results for the cost of the contract.

2018 STORY: DPS contracts with Virginia group on school improvement

• The board approved a no-cost agreement for 2020-21 with Sandy Hook Promise to educate DPS middle school and high school students on SHP’s system to look for “warning signs, signals and threats, especially in social media, from individuals who may want to hurt themselves or others.”

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About the Author

Jeremy P. Kelley

Jeremy Kelley is the assistant news editor for the Dayton Daily News. Jeremy is a Cincinnati native and has lived in the Dayton area for 30-plus years.

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Two former Dayton schools to be demolished; renovation of others to begin