Two community forums will be held to discuss the plan for Bowling Green City Schools facilities.

The forums are planned for March 9 and March 22 at 6 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center to discuss the recommendations of the district’s facilities group.

The group will discuss the master plan and get input from the community before it makes a recommendation to the board, said Superintendent Francis Scruci at Tuesday’s school board meeting.

During its last meeting earlier this month, the group voted in support to put the high school project as a priority above work on the elementary schools and also overwhelmingly agreed that a new high school should be built rather than add a new addition.

“Right now we are going over the poll results and there are still going to be discussions about what’s going to be presented,” said board member Ryan Myers.

The group will meet Feb. 23 to finalize everything, including the master plan, he said.

The board’s facilities advisory group first met in August.

The district may or may not be on the ballot in November for improved facilities.

“If there is going to be a ballot issue,” and that is a big if, clarified Scruci after the board approved a revised resolution to participate in the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission Expedited Local Partnership Program.

“At this point there has been no decision. This is a formality that we have to apply in order to qualify,” Scruci said.

If the school board decides it is not ready, there will be no levy, he said.

This resolution needed a date as to when the district may go to the ballot to ask voters to support funding either new construction or major repairs.

“If the board decides we’re not ready, we won’t be putting one on in November,” Scruci said.

The ELPP permits school districts that are more than two years away from eligibility for state assistance to receive a district-wide assessment and master facility plan from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission. Program participants may spend local funds on a part of its master plan and later deduct those expenditures from the district’s share when it becomes eligible for state funds.

Bowling Green rejoined the ELPP program in January after first approving participation in May 2019.

When the application was approved in 2019, the elementary school project would have qualified as the first portion of the overall master plan. The district failed in three attempts to get a bond issue approved for that school.

At that time, based on the district’s current ranking of 506th, it was eligible for 17% state funding.

It is not known where the district now falls on the state list.

There are 611 public school districts in Ohio, and ranking is based on the district’s wealth.

With the partnership program, when the district’s turn arises in the Classroom Facilities Assistance Program – which was estimated at 10 years in 2019 — the money spent by the district with ELPP is credited against the local share of the entire master plan projects.