About 1 year ago, the Nordonia Hills City School District formed a steering committee made up of community members. Through a series of meetings over a 7 to 8 month period, the steering committee, along with the District architects and consultants created a master plan as to what the future educational facilities of Nordonia Schools would look like. The steering committee presented their recommendations to the Board at the District’s March meeting.
The community-based steering committee recommends the District consolidate down to 3 buildings, from our current 6. With 3 brand new buildings, the District will consolidate all K-4 students into one building, combine grades 5 through 8 into one building and construct a new 9 through 12 high school.
On July 18, the Nordonia Hills Board of Education voted to place a $165,000,000 bond issuance on the November 8, ballot. The District would like the community to decide if now is the time to upgrade our facilities. The steering committee overwhelmingly believes the District’s buildings need to be replaced and that now is the time to do so.
Our architects and consultants estimate an annual savings of approximately $700,000 per building per year for each building. So, if the District consolidates down by 3 buildings, it will provide operational savings of $21,000,000 over the next 10 years.
The youngest school building in our District is over 50 years old. The oldest buildings are close to 100 years old. Our community has a duty to our students to provide them the best possible education in the safest environment. How can we ask our students to compete in a global economy and to thrive in the technological age with buildings that were designed for a very different educational experience?
New school buildings will come with the latest technology, be more energy efficient, come with the latest and best security measures available to keep our children safe, and create operational savings. It’s time to stop throwing our money away on retrofitting and band-aiding 50 to 100 year old buildings.
Now is the time to invest in our children and our community.
Chad Lahrmer
School Board member
