Coshocton Schools seeking public input on facilities plan
COSHOCTON − A second survey to help create a new facilities management plan for Coshocton City Schools ends today, Monday, Feb. 6.
It's available through Survey Monkey and has different questions than a survey from December. It asks opinions on plans derived from answers to the previous survey and an extensive facility assessment. The first survey received 884 responses. This was up from 492 responses to a similar facilities plan survey in 2019.
Each plan includes preservation of the current high school's large gymnasium, natatorium and auditorium as the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) would not co-fund equivalent spaces in a new building. The first survey showed keeping these elements were important to a majority of respondents.
The OFCC would provide some funding for renovations or new constructions, but a local share would need funded along with some items the OFCC wouldn't cover.
Available on the district's website are slideshow presentations and videos from two public meetings held to provide detailed information on the possible plans. Meetings were held Jan. 18 and 26 in the auditorium of Coshocton High School. These included comments from Superintendent David Hire and architect Josh Predovich from SHP of Columbus.
The current high school, which has grades seventh to 12th, was built in 1969. The current elementary school was built in 2013 and has preschool to sixth grade.
Option one is to build a 78,000-square-foot addition onto the elementary building to house grades seventh to 12th. The state would pay $21.9 million, with the total local share at $22.5 million. Elements of the existing campus would need reworked such as utilities, drives and parking. Classroom wings of the high school would be demolished or abated with the gym, natatorium and auditorium preserved for use. A sub-plan, called Option 1A, would include some limited renovations to the high school for use and reduce the local portion to $20.2 million.
Option two would be constructing a new 100,456-square-foot seventh to 12th grade building between the administration center and high school parking lot. A smaller gymnasium and 157 parking spots would be co-funded by the state. Classroom wings of the high school would be demolished or abated with the gym, natatorium and auditorium preserved for use with this plan too. The state funding is estimated at $21.9 million with the local share at $29.6 million. The Option 2A sub-plan with some limited remodeling to the high school for use would reduce the local portion to $22.5 million.
Option three is renovations at the high school with OFCC funding. The building would be restored to like-new conditions and local funding initiatives would only be to upgrade materials or systems above the base allowed by the state. The OFCC would pay $21.9 million with the local share at $28.1 million.
Option four would be renovations to the high school without OFCC money, meaning $33.5 million would need to come from local funding.
A community advisory team will review survey submissions once they're closed. More community forums are being planned for March to go over the results of the second survey. The board of education would then decide on a final master plan in May. The OFCC would make any funding offers this summer and the district could possibly go to the ballot this fall to obtain local funding.
Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with close to 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @llhayhurst.
This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Coshocton Schools seeking public input on facilities plan
