SHELBY – Voters in Shelby will decide on Nov. 7 whether to construct a new school building for the district’s pre-kindergarten through eighth grade students.
The Board of Education voted unanimously at their July meeting to send the new facilities issue to the ballot. Since then, the district has launched a “One District, One Campus” campaign with pamphlets answering frequently asked questions, door-to-door flyers, and a town hall meeting on Oct. 10 addressing the community’s concerns.
“We want people to be informed,” said Shelby Superintendent Tim Tarvin at the board’s Sept. 25 meeting. “We understand we may agree to disagree on certain issues, but we want people to be informed.”
The total cost of the new building to taxpayers is $16,470,000 with a millage rate of 3.9 mills over 34 years. At 3.9 mills, the annual cost to an individual who owns a home valued at $100,000 would be $136 per year. That equals less than $12 per month for most taxpayers, and in return approximately 1,200 students in the Shelby City Schools district would receive a new school building.
Shelby School District will be financing $6,630,000 of the proposed construction project using a variety of sources, including local taxes. This includes $2 million the district has saved over the past five years that will be contributed from the general fund toward the project, and $1.6 million of Local Funded Initiatives money leftover from the construction of the new Shelby High School, which was completed in 2013.
In addition, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) has $16,082,215 available to fund a new school facility in Shelby. This is 50 percent of the estimated $32,162,430 cost to build a new school. In order to receive the funds, the district must provide the other half of the project cost.
“We don’t want to kick the can down the road to the next generation, we feel it’s important to address them now,” said Tarvin at the Sept. 25 meeting. “The question becomes, do you want to do nothing, do you want to renovate, or do you want to build new?”
Auburn Elementary was built in 1948, Dowds Elementary was built in 1956, and Shelby Middle School was built in 1965. The total cost of renovating all three buildings would be a minimum of $34.2 million, leaving $19 million to Shelby taxpayers after the state’s contributions. Building a new building would cost almost $3 million less to Shelby taxpayers.
The district’s plan for the new building is to combine pre-kindergarten students, elementary students and middle school students under one roof. However, while all students would be on the same campus, the new building would be designed so that elementary students and middle school students are separate, including separate entrances, separate classrooms, and separate hallways.
The proposed location of the new building would be north of the current middle school, but south of the baseball field. In addition, the academic wing of the current middle school will be razed, but the David A. Jones Little Theater, the Joe Yohn Gymnasium, the music rooms, the commons, the locker rooms and the kitchen area would be preserved for future use.
The bond issue would also replace a crumbling stadium at W.W. Skiles Field located in downtown Shelby’s flood zone. According to an outside, independent agency inspection, the the life expectancy of the current football stadium is only four to eight years. Currently, architects estimate a new athletic facility to cost $2.8 million that would be included in the total cost on the ballot issue.
The new turf football stadium would run north to south where the academic wing currently stands at Shelby Middle School. Placing the field in this location allows W.W. Skiles Field to be replicated as much as possible with spectator stands close to the field and space for a “dog pound” in the end zones.
Tarvin noted that district officials considered separating the football stadium and the new school building on the ballot. However, combining the two allows for at least $1 million in cost savings for building the stadium.
“I also think we’re going to do ourselves a disservice by separating an athletic venue issue from an academic venue issue; then you’re going to pit people who want a school building against those who want an athletic facility,” Tarvin said. “By putting them together, we’re putting just as much emphasis on academics as we are athletics.”
Transportation to the new building facility would look very similar to current transportation routes, and Shelby would continue to provide transportation to students currently receiving it. The district’s plan is to keep the start times currently used for the schools’ respective age groups.
The district has no set plans for the Auburn, Central and Dowds buildings and the football stadium. One option would be to demolish all four facilities with the help of 50 percent of the cost coming from the state, and then either keep or sell the properties. There are no plans to construct or move a new bus garage, and preliminary architectural plans would move the Board of Education offices to the part of the current middle school that would not be demolished.
“We believe this plan of building a new school is in the best interest of our kids, and it would also help the community,” Tarvin said.
