Estimated costs can now be associated with facilities options for Bowling Green City Schools.
At Wednesday’s facilities task force meeting, Fanning Howey representatives gave the estimates for six
building options, and decided which to pass on to the financial task force, which meets tonight.
Wednesday’s meeting was held at Bowling Green Middle School.
“So you have the information we discussed, now you are putting costs to it,” said Steve Wilczynski, an
architect and executive director of Fanning Howey.
The top three options being forwarded to the financial task force are:
• A new consolidated elementary. For 150,530 square feet, the estimated cost for 2019 is $39.050 million.
There would be 1,416 prekindergarten-fifth grade students in the building.
• Build a new Kenwood and a new Conneaut, and renovate Crim. For the needed 170,900 square feet, the cost
is estimated at $38.323 million in 2019. The plan includes 472 students in each building, each with
grades prekindergarten-fifth grade.
• Renovate all three elementaries. For the same square footage, the estimated cost for 2019 is $31.313
million. The plan includes 472 students in each building, each with grades prekindergarten-fifth grade.

All building sizes and costs are preliminary for comparison purposes only, the architects said.
Sending those top three options garnered a 59 percent approval rate, compared to 41 percent for
forwarding the top two.
Approximately 40 members of the task force attended Wednesday’s meeting.
A new option — one new elementary on the main campus for prekindergarten-fifth grade and a renovated Crim
for kindergarten-fifth grade — was raised Wednesday. With 160,890 square feet, the estimated cost for
2019 was $33.215 million. There would be 1,006 students in the new school and 410 at Crim.
Eleven percent strongly agreed with this option, 43 percent agreed, 8 percent were neutral, 19 percent
disagreed and 19 percent strongly disagreed.
Ellen Scholl, a former school board member who did not vote in favor of the $72 million bond issue for
schools, asked why there is a need to renovate Crim since the work already has been done.
The estimate to do that work is $3.687 million in 2019.
Scholl suggested surveying the community, because the people she has spoken to do not support that
number.
“The district’s responsibility is to survey the community,” she said.
But other task force members quickly pointed out the security, technology and space are limited at the
school.
After touring the new Northwood school and the renovated Powell Elementary in North Baltimore, Frances
Brent said she now realizes how far behind Bowling Green is in technology.
“Northwood and North Baltimore are miles ahead of our kids,” she said.
But Barb Belleville pointed out that in each district, what she heard was they don’t have enough room.

She likes the idea of adding space to Kenwood and Conneaut.
“There are things we can do with the bones that we have,” she said.
The estimated costs will be shared at the financial task force meeting tonight at 7 at Crim Elementary.

Dave Conley, with Rockmill Financial Consulting, said that financial task force members are not tasked
with discussing the facility aspects of the information provided them.
“I would like to only focus on the numbers, not the projects,” he said in an email today.