Westerville and South-Western school districts opening new buildings to students

Students in a few Greater Columbus school districts will start their first day of the new school year in new buildings.

Westerville Schools will open Minerva France Elementary School and South-Western City Schools is replacing four of its five middle schools.

In addition, Grandview Heights Schools will complete renovations to the district's high school during winter break.

These school districts have paid millions of dollars to construct new buildings born out of voter-approved levies from previous years.

The new buildings will offer more space and natural light in modern facilities.

Amusement-park themed school

Westerville Schools will open their 14th elementary school this fall — Minerva France Elementary School at 4990 Farview Road in Minerva Park.

The $16.1-million school is the result of a combined 1.95-mill bond issue and a 5.9-mill operating levy voters approved on Nov. 5, 2019.

Construction started on the new elementary school in 2021. This is the district’s first new elementary school since 2002, when Fouse and Alcott elementary schools both opened.

More: Westerville's new Minerva France Elementary School could be finished by March

Minerva France has capacity for 600 students and additional space for specialized-learning classrooms and kindergarten.

The school is named in honor of a Black librarian who was formerly a Westerville student, Minerva France.

The school's design was inspired by Minerva Park’s Amusement Park, which opened on May 15, 1895 and closed on July 27, 1902.

A curved portion of the exterior was inspired by the park’s Scenic Railway roller-coaster.

“You will see a lot of curves in the building that were inspired by a lot of pictures we have of the roller coaster,” said Westerville Superintendent John R. Kellogg.

The new school's cafeteria is named the Scenic Railway Café after the coaster. Its media center is named the Green Line Learning Station after a green line trolley that took residents from Downtown Columbus to Minerva Park's amusement park.

Kellogg said he is glad the school district is investing in a new building in the southern end of the district.

“We have a large population of students who for years had their school outside of their local community,” Kellogg said.

The district solicited feedback from elementary students while they were designing the building, and they said they wanted more color, natural light and comfortable furniture, said Jeff LeRose, the district’s director of facilities.

As a result, each grade level has a corresponding color — bright yellow, light green, orange and light blue — for their classrooms.

Four new middle schools

South-Western City Schools is replacing four of the district's five middle schools with new buildings that will open this school year.

Beulah Middle School (formerly Brookpark Middle School) at 3160 Demorest Road; Finland Middle School at 1827 Finland Ave.; Norton Middle School at 215 Norton Road; and Pleasant View Middle School, 2767 Holt Road, will all open as new buildings this fall.

Each building cost $30 million to construct and can hold up to 800 students, said Monte Detterman, South-Western’s director of business services.

More: South-Western City School District gets in line for next round of OFCC project funding

The old buildings that are being replaced “were passed their prime,” Detterman said.

“When they were built, there wasn’t an idea of air conditioning,” he said. “Learning space and learning capabilities and safety really come to the forefront when you think of why these buildings need to be replaced.”

The four new, two-story buildings have a similar design and are all roughly 120,000 square feet each.

The new middle schools are the result of a 38-year, $93.4-million bond issue that voters approved in November 2018.

Jackson Middle School, the district’s fifth middle school, is getting an 11,500-square-foot expansion rather than a new building since it was originally built in 2001.

Grandview's renovated high school

Grandview Heights High School is currently under renovation and work will be completed during winter break.

Once the renovations are complete, fourth- through eighth-grade students will move into the new Larson Middle School, which opened in August 2021, and high school students will return to the newly renovated high school.

The high school is currently being “taking down to the studs," said Superintendent Andy Culp.

The work is part of the district’s facilities project. The three-phase project is funded by a $55.2-million bond issue voters approved in November 2018.

The first phase included construction of a new Larson Middle School building,, at a cost of $24 million. The initial occupants are high school students who are attending class in the building while the high school is renovated.

More: Grandview Heights Schools: Completion of second phase of facilities project expected by end of year

The second phase involved the $24-million renovation of the district’s high school, which was originally built in 1922.

The renovations include installation of new flexible furniture, garage doors that connect to larger collaboration spaces and easier access to technology, Culp said.

​​The third phase of the project will include completing a site plan in coordination with the city of Grandview Heights. This will create a new parking lot east of Fairview Avenue where the kindergarten annex building currently sits, a new playground, a new drop-off point on Oakland Avenue, a turnaround on Fairview, an outdoor learning space, multi-faceted athletic field, and a small city park created on First Avenue.

The kindergarten annex building will be demolished during the third phase.

Additional space in Gahanna-Jefferson

Blacklick and High Point elementary schools are getting additional space this fall as part of phase 2 of the Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools’ master facilities plan improvements.

Blacklick Elementary, off Havens Corner Road west of Reynoldsburg-New Albany Road, is getting a 17,980-square-foot addition expected to be finished in October. High Point Elementary, at 700 Venetian Way north of Clark State Road, is getting a 14,180-square-foot expansion that is expected to be finished in November, according to Jill Elliott, assistant superintendent at Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools.

The additions and renovations are expected to provide space for another 225 students in each building.

Both schools are also getting new gymnasiums that are each just under 5,000 square feet. Work won't be completed until sometime in December, Elliott said.

The additions and renovations to these two buildings are costing the district just over $18.5 million dollars.

More: Gahanna-Jefferson Public Schools: Construction poised to begin at Blacklick, High Point

The funds are from part of Issue 22, which voters passed in November 2020, and includes a 4.93-mill bond issue and a 1.5-mill permanent-improvements levy, for a total of 6.43 mills.

Information from ThisWeek News was included in this report.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: New buildings opening in two Greater Columbus school districts