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CANFIELD — The Canfield Board of Education has approved a $104,955,000 plan and will seek a bond issue to finance new buildings and renovations.
The vote came after roughly a year of researching what Canfield residents wanted.
The next step is to submit a resolution to the Mahoning County Auditorás Office. At the July board meeting, a vote will be held to place the bond issue on the ballot.
The school board voted to declare the necessity of the issuance of school improvement bonds for $104,955,000. Voting for the resolution were board members Dave Wilkeson, Traci DeCapua, and Matt Campbell. Absent were Nader Atway and Bob Smallwood, but DeCapua said they are in agreement.
So-called Plan A involves building a new K-4 elementary school at the Hilltop school site, a new 5-8 middle school at the Canfield Village Middle School site, renovations to the high school, and the abatement of the C.H. Campbell building. The school board offices would be moved to the former Hilltop school building and a second gym would be built at the middle school after the move.
“The committee’s feedback was clear,” said DeCapua. “No plan is perfect, not all will be happy, and we all have the same goal in mind. This board believes Plan A will help meet the needs of our school district.”
LONG PROCESS
Over the summer and fall, the board began having sessions to get feedback from the community.
“We have listened to you and have heard you,” DeCapua, board president, said. “I know we are missing two people [tonight], but I wanted to be clear that this is a decision the entire board is behind.”
It was roughly one year ago the school board canceled placing a bond issue for a $107,800,000 project to build a new school and bus garage on Redgate farm property the city owns. Voters in that May 3 election had turned down the bond levy by nearly 72 percent.
At that meeting last year, Atway said: “I see an opportunity to come back with a plan the community will support.”
In January a committee of residents, business owners, and school staff came together and took some 10 ideas, narrowing them to one plan based on what people were saying they wanted. This plan was presented to the school board during a special meeting on June 1.
LEAST COST
Wilkeson said the $104,995,000 is the cheapest route. He said some have asked him about segmenting the plan.
“The cheapest we could pass right now is $80 million,” he said. “In 10 years, C.H. Campbell will cost us $60 million.”
He said that would total $140 million in just 10 years. He added that Plan A would end up costing $200 million if the board waits 20 years.
“What we are doing is choosing between an expensive plan now, or a really expensive plan down the road,” he said.
While the meeting was attended by less than a dozen people, two did sign up to speak.
Ed Kay, who lives on Edwards Street near the middle school, said: “On Edwards Avenue, shoe-horning the new building in is not what we want to hear for millions of dollars.”
He said the idea of building the new middle school on the Shields Road property would have been better. He said he couldnát imagine the problems with building a new middle school while the old one is in session.
“At 7:30 a.m. on Edwards the cars are bumper-to-bumper dropping off kids,” he said. “I can’t get out of my drive way and what if an ambulance were called to the school? It would never get through.”
He said adding the construction would be a nightmare.
Also speaking was Jason Henry, who served on the facilities committee.
“The result of whatever you choose to do will have the support of the majority of committee members,” he said. “There were a lot of negatives to Shields Road and Edwards Avenue, but I believe there are solutions for all those ideas.”