A town hall meeting was held at Northwestern Elementary School on May 18 to get public feedback on how the district should proceed as it enters the final phase of its four-year building project. Northwestern Local School (NWLS) District Superintendent, Jesse Steiner, presided.
Steiner walked community members through a brief breakdown of how the project was financed before ground was broken in 2012. He also touched on how the difficulties the project ran into at the beginning, including issues with bidding, affected the project physically and financially.
According to Steiner, records received from the project’s close-out report show the project’s total approved budget was $51,345,655. NWLS provided 55 percent of the budgeted funds ($28,240,110) and the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) provided the remaining 45 percent of the funding ($23,105,545).
Steiner explained how a number of factors over the years have resulted in the project actually coming in under budget, leaving enough funds available in the NWLS’ building account to complete a “wish list” of un-met building needs and improvements--many of which were included in the initial building design, but were scrapped or modified in order to keep the project within budget.
Necessary facilities improvements on the immediate roster include: the installation of back-up boilers, a walkway to connect the two school buildings, adding roadway berms, installing a fence around the bus parking lot, acquiring energy-efficient parking lot lights, and landscaping the campus. Some of the available funds will also be used to retire some of the outstanding debt from the project, saving the district money in the long run.
According to Steiner, once the necessary improvements are made and some of the debt is retired, the district will have an estimated $300,000 still available. Residents at the town hall meeting were asked what they would like to see done with the money. Residents agreed that since the money was originally intended for the building project, it should go to make further improvements school facilities, “We want the kids to have the best things we can provide for them. If we have the money, why not use it to make our schools even better?” asked one attendee.
Some projects suggested by Steiner included installing a press box at the softball diamond, creating a marching band practice field and tower, adding a backstop and fence to the baseball diamond, and/or building an athletic complex on the campus. Steiner also solicited project suggestions from those attending the meeting.
After lengthy discussion, the general consensus was an athletic complex would best serve the needs of the district. Teachers and Athletic Director, Jeff Hobby, mentioned how storage space was at a premium in the buildings. According to them, an athletic complex would help solve the storage problem by providing lockers for every athlete, an appropriate place for teams to practice, and a place to store athletic equipment—freeing up some much-needed, climate-controlled storage space. An athletic complex would also provide more public restrooms near sports facilities.
A member of the Athletic Boosters mentioned the Boosters would be “more than happy to put some money up for such a project.”
Steiner promised to keep an open dialogue with the public as the district continues to move forward.
