CANFIELD — An agreement between city council and the board of education opens the door for a new elementary / middle school to be located on the city-owned Red Gate Farm property off Leffingwell Road.

The city agreed to give the schools nearly 100 acres of the Red Gate Farm property in exchange for nine acres from the Canfield Middle School property and the bus garage.

Canfield Superintendent Joe Knoll made the official announcement at a special joint council and board of education meeting Wednesday. However, a pricey hitch is attached to the agreement.

Under the agreement, the schools will have until June 2023 to get a 6.9-mill bond levy passed that would raise more than $107 million for the project. That money would be used to construct a new preK-8 building and a bus garage on the Red Gate property. It also would fund some repairs and upgrades to the high school and allow about $1 million to help the city to demolish the middle school.

“Canfield schools are coming to Red Gate,” Knoll said. “But the bond levy must be passed by June 2023 in order to get this property.”

The Red Gate Farm property is roughly 300 acres the city purchased almost 20 ago. It lies to the west of South Palmyra Road and has Leffingwell Road cutting through its southern half. For years, the property was farmed, even after the city purchased it and leased it to a local farmer.

City manager Wade Calhoun said city officials are supporting the plan for a new school.

“When I started as city manager in 2019, I walked around the middle school,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine my kids in those conditions.”

Calhoun was referring to the steam-boiler and roof leaks and the lack of air-conditioning and air-purification systems.

Newly seated school board President Nader Atway agreed with Calhoun’s assessment and said he hopes the plan presented would help change that.

“The master plan is a campus that everyone can be proud of,” Atway said. “We have an immediate need to replace our aging schools right now.”

Knoll said the board has not settled on what to do with the C.H. Campbell and Hilltop Elementary school properties or the acreage the school district owns on Shields Road in front of the Canfield Baseball Club.

Knoll said the eventual goal will be to have the high school moved to the Red Gate property, but for now it is only the elementary schools and middle schools that will see new construction there.

“We have one year to pass this levy,” Knoll said, “or we lose the whole deal.”

Following the joint meeting, the school board held its regular monthly session. Several parents spoke about concerns over large class sizes.

Knoll said a new elementary school should take care of that problem.