PERRYSBURG — Board members admitted to “sticker shock” while reviewing early financial figures for a new
school during a work session this morning.
For some, the need for the new fifth-and-sixth-grade building to stem crowded classrooms in the growing
school district wasn’t enough to soften the blow of a potential $41.5 million price tag among the board.

“My jaw is still on the floor at the cost,” said board member Cal Smith.
“I’m not on board right now, I will just say that right now. This is way too much.”
Board member Jarman Davis said it will be a “balancing act” moving forward in determining what puts the
district in the best position as expansion continues and what type of levy voters will support.
Superintendent Tom Hosler agreed that the $41.5 million is a ceiling and said it is likely to come down
as levy plans are arranged.
“At this point I think the board is going to go through and begin to pull some of those things off or
change them,” he said.
A rough initial estimate for the building itself was presented at $34,350,000 by Frank Beans of The
Collaborative and John Castellana of TMP Architecture, two firms that have combined to offer consulting
on the project.
Both spoke at length during the two-hour work session, offering explanation of building components and
loose suggestions as board members begin to weigh what they do and do not want included in the project.

Architects also presented basic estimates of other capital projects that could be combined into the levy
attempt that would bring the total to $41.5 million if all were included.
Those items include air conditioning, electrical upgrades and new boilers at the junior high school; an
auxiliary gym at the high school; and work to create more-secure entries and all-day kindergarten space
at existing elementaries.
Superintendent Tom Hosler said there has been community interest in those projects, particularly the
junior high air conditioning, but that all-day kindergarten could be foregone, particularly since the
state has gone through several reversals on requiring it.
The district will likely structure a levy to not begin collections until January 2016, when an existing
1.85-mill levy used to build Fort Meigs Elementary in 1990 will expire.
Before cost information on the building became available, district information suggested that the owner
of a $200,000 home would pay an additional $7 per month over what they pay under the existing levy.
As the board went back and forth about the need for certain components of the building or how much space
is needed, board member Walt Edinger cautioned that if the cost must be reduced, it should start with
the extra projects at other buildings, rather than reducing or removing aspects of the building plan.

“Having been in that conversation before, that’s a really dangerous way to build buildings, is to come up
with a number and try to fit a building to that number,” Edinger said, with the architects visually
agreeing.
Hosler cautioned that the list of other projects outside the new building wasn’t a proposal to the board,
but a representation of what has been requested by taxpayers in the district, the first time figures had
been generated.
“It’s not necessarily what we’re saying the voters are going to see in November. … We asked (the
architects) to come up with that dollar amount. They have, and now I think the board needs to ask
(question) like we are today and let that percolate a bit and then react to that and weigh each of those
things.
“At the end of the day, it’s ‘what will the community support?’”
Board members agreed several additional discussions will be necessary before a levy package can be
arranged for a board vote. The group agreed to conduct another work session at 7 a.m. June 19.
Information provided Tuesday lists a date for the board to approve a levy request as July 21.