Bowling Green City Schools has approved its master facility plan, but pay no attention to the actual wording.
“That is not what’s happening,” said Superintendent Ted Haselman about the scope of the project outlined in the resolution.
“We’re only building a new high school and we will be renovating the new BGCS activity center as presented and explained in November,” he said.
The board of education at its Tuesday meeting approved the resolution accepting the master facility plan as outlined by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission to allow the district to proceed with construction of its new high school and make the district eligible for state cost sharing.
The resolution lists the scope of the project as a new high school for grades 9-12, the renovation for Crim Elementary for grades PK-2, the renovation and addition of the middle school for grades 2-8, and the demolition of Conneaut and Kenwood elementaries and the high school.
The language was written that way by OFCC in order to maximize the funding from the state based on square footage and building enrollment and shifts students around to maximize the state share, Haselman explained.
“The only thing we’re locked into is the new high school,” he said before the meeting. “None of that other stuff matters right now.”
It’s simply a formality, he said.
A new master facility plan will be developed when the district decides what to do with its elementaries, he said.
“We need to have many, many conversations as to what our best option for Bowling Green City Schools is with the elementary facilities, whether that’s one facility or multiple facilities,” Haselman said.
A new master plan will be created to maximize the square footage based on student enrollment, he said.
“I’m hoping I will be sitting up here again having this same conversation, stating what’s in there is not necessarily what’s happening,” he said.
Voters approved a $72.8 million request in November for the new high school.
The resolution has a project budget cost of $63,292,939, with a local share of 83%, or $53,301,638.
The remaining $9.5 million is local funds to pay for items that do not qualify for shared funding, including renovations to the high school to make it an activities center, adding geothermal heating and cooling and increasing the size of the cafeteria in the new school, Haselman said.
The board also passed a resolution to provide 0.50 mills for maintenance of the new school. The millage, which is included in what was approved in November, will be collected for 23 years.
Groundbreaking is expected to take place around May of 2025 with a target opening date of August 2027. Selective demolition of the old high school would take place after the opening of the new building. A target opening date of the BGCS Activity Center would be the spring of 2028.
Short term notes have been sold and the district is in the process of selling the bonds this spring.
