POLAND — The school board has taken the first steps toward building new schools by approving resolutions to start the process of placing a bond issue on the November ballot.

Poland Local Schools Superintendent Craig Hockenberry said the district’s master building plan resulted from input garnered at 116 meetings with community members in their homes.

“We reached 2,914 people through this 10-and-a-half month journey to get the facts out and receive feedback,” Hockenberry said.

He said board members at a February retreat unanimously settled on the building plan.

The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission would contribute about $17.5 million of the $105 million project. The bond issue, if approved, would stretch over 37 years and cost the average homeowner $839 per year more in property taxes.

Hockenberry said the board will have to complete the process in June to get the bond issue ready for November.

The plan includes a new elementary school, a new high school and a combined renovated middle school at the old Seminary school site in the center of the village.

The elementary school would host grades kindergarten to five and be located on the North Elementary property. The middle school would host grades six to eight, while the high school would host grades nine to 12 and be located on the Poland Seminary High School property on Dobbins Road.

A building at 3030 Dobbins Road would be used as a preschool and administration building, school officials said.

The work at the middle school would include renovations and additions to the 2005 commons / student dining area, which is just more than 10,000 square feet.

New construction would replace the 86,241-square-foot area that contained the original building from 1927; the first addition from 1930; the north classroom wing, the south gymnasium addition and crawl space from 1938; and classroom additions made in 1952 and 1963.

The plan also calls for the abatement and demolition of Dobbins, McKinley, North and Poland Union elementary schools and the high school. Also planned for demolition would be the administrative wing that was part of the middle school commons.