NORTHWOOD – The Northwood Board of
Education has agreed to build its new school on the current campus site.At Thursday’s board meeting,
members voted 5-0 on a resolution to select the current school location on Lemoyne Road as site for the
Ohio School Facilities Commission building project unless a more desirable centrally located site
becomes available.It will be up to the district, and local monies, to find housing for students once
demolition starts on the existing buildings.The district’s plan calls for Olney Elementary, Lark
Elementary and Northwood Elementary School to be torn down. The high school would be partially torn down
with the common spaces including the gymnasium and auditorium maintained for continued community and
student use.Superintendent Greg Clark said part of planning after the levies pass will be what to do
with students during construction."It will depend on how much of a footprint we need for the
construction site," he said."It’s possible the current Olney building (which holds
prekindergarten-2 grades) will have to come down. Which means we will have to find space for
them."Lark Elementary, located west of the main campus on West Andrus Road, could be used to house
the students from Olney, if the building’s boiler works.If it doesn’t, other options would be
considered, Clark said.OSFC had reservations about the current site, but approved its use as long as the
district continues to look at other central sites if they become available.If the levy passes, planning
will start the beginning of the year, with students moving into the new prekindergarten-12 school at the
end of 2016.A combined 0.25-percent earned income tax and a 4.9-mill property tax are on the Nov. 5
ballot to fund the project.The estimated cost of the new 130,000-square-foot school is $33.02 million,
with the state’s Ohio School Facilities Commission paying for $11.55 million, or 35 percent, and
Northwood paying the $21.46 million balance.The income tax, over 37 years, is expected to collect $8.35
million, while the property tax would generate $11.7 million over its 37-year term.The district also
will use income from payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreements from FedEx and Johnson Controls, which combined
comes to $394,000 annually.