By T.J. Hug
The Village Reporter
North Central District Superintendent Ken Boyer hosted a public meeting on December 16 to inform the citizen of Pioneer on the progress of the school’s plans to erect a new high school facility.
The finalized schematics for the project were on display in the back of the school’s cafeteria, where the meeting was held. Throughout the presentation, several people on hand examined the blueprints, eager to get a peek at what the future of the school will look like.
The state of Ohio will be picking up half of the burden associated with the building’s construction. This amounts to $4,303,435 that the state will put toward the project. However, the district has raised additional funds to contribute to plan, thanks to a locally funded initiative. Aside from the other $4,303,435, for which North Central is responsible, they area also prepared to offer another $816,960 to the construction. This puts the entire portion of the district’s share of the cost at $5,120,395.
There is a plan in place to collect the remaining funds necessary to complete the project. A 1.4 mill bond levy will produce $2,300,000 for the school to use. Another $2,000,000 will come from a Permanent Improvement Fund Loan, which will be paid off in ten years time.
Permanent Improvement Funds typically are used to pay for buildings, buses, books, technology, maintenance, desks, and several other things. The common trait shared by everything that can be bought and/or repaired with Permanent Improvement money is that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, they will last longer than five years. The new high school building is projected to have a life span of sixty to eighty years.
The money associated with the new building is already being put to good use. The architect/engineering firm Garman Miller, out of Lima, has been awarded a contract to complete the task. A construction manager has been assigned to oversee the project unfold.
A representative of Garman Miller spoke with the school’s staff as well. The goal was to take input given by these North Central employees and apply it to how the new structure will be built. Labs with over one-thousand square feet of space are one such development to come of these interviews.
That same representative, Brian Wolf, was in attendance at the public meeting, ready to answer any questions residents may have had on the construction of the facility. And they had a lot of questions for him. From particulars on how the changes that will be made to the land to accommodate the building to queries on how the space of the interior will be used, Wolf was interrogated quite thoroughly about the project.
A timetable has been set for the construction. Designs development for the project will be completed in February of 2015. Construction documents will be finalized in April of that same year. Actual construction will begin in June. The new high school is expected to be completed in August of 2016.
T.J. Hug can be reached at
publisher@thevillagereporter.com