SHELBY – Shelby voters will have another chance to approve or reject building a new school and new football stadium on the May ballot.
The Board of Education unanimously voted on Monday to put the 4.6-mill, 34-year bond issue back on the ballot. The election will take place on May 8.
The issue will be nearly identical to the same plan the district brought to voters in November, to build a new building to combine pre-kindergarten students, elementary students and middle school students under one roof. 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 life expectancy of the current football stadium is only four to eight years.
Shelby voters rejected the district’s first attempt at passing the levy on the Nov. 7, 2017 general election. Official results from the Richland County Board of Elections showed 2,263 votes (58.63 percent) against the bond issue, and 1,597 votes (41.37 percent) for the issue. The bond issue was a 3.9 mills, 34-year issue that would fund buildings and facilities.
According to Superintendent Tim Tarvin, the price has raised by about $2 million for the second iteration of the bond issue. The total cost of the project in November was $39 million, but in May the total cost will have raised to $41.4 million.
“The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) says on average, every year you wait to go into a construction project, the cost rises three percent,” Tarvin said. “This is the cheapest it will ever be.”
Thanks to contributions from the OFCC and a $6.6 million contribution from the Shelby City Schools district, taxpayers will only be responsible for $18,850,000 of the project, or 45 percent. This is an increase from November, when the taxpayer cost was $16,470,000.
The price increase comes from increased interest and tax rates, and a new mandate from the state requiring all new construction projects for schools to include reinforced walls and ceilings for tornado shelters. This raises the project cost approximately half a million dollars.
Another price increase comes from the district’s new plan for the football stadium. The district’s original plan for the new new turf football stadium would have run north to south where the academic wing currently stands at Shelby Middle School, at the corner of W. Smiley Ave. and Sunset Drive.
A survey created by Shelby City Schools with the assistance of the Ohio School Boards Association showed the community was divided on building a new stadium, but definitely did not want a stadium at the proposed location. The survey was distributed from Dec. 20 through Jan. 3 and received 700 responses – approximately 5 percent of the 3,860 people who voted on the issue in the November election.
“The two big concerns with regard to the stadium were location and parking, and this plan addresses both of them,” Tarvin said.
The new plan moves the football stadium to the north end of the campus, where the track currently resides. The new field would be built in the center of the track, a concessions stand and bathroom facilities would be constructed, and 400 new paved parking spaces would be added.
“It costs more to build the stadium out at the track, and we knew that in November, but we wanted to present the least expensive place to build the stadium,” Tarvin said. “But what we heard from the community was, even if it costs more, put the stadium somewhere different because it’s inconvenient where it’s at.”
Tarvin also stressed keeping the stadium downtown is not an option due to safety concerns as well as unrealistic costs to build in a flood zone.
While the community survey was split on the stadium issue, results were much more definitive in regards to building a new pre-K through 8th grade building. According to Tarvin, 65 of respondents said they saw a need for a new building, while only 35 percent of respondents couldn’t support the issue.
“When we were defeated in November, our levy committee including administrators, teachers, members of the board and members of the community sat down and decided to conduct the survey,” Tarvin said. “I’m really glad we did from the perspective of getting community input and responses; we wanted to get a good idea of what our community will and won’t support.”
These results do not mirror the November election results, where approximately 58 percent of voters were against the issue and 41 percent were for the issue. However, Tarvin is optimistic that addressing the stadium issue and continuing to inform voters will change the tides in May.
“We tried to give voters every piece of information they could possible use to make an informed decision (in November), but there’s a lot of moving parts, so one thing we learned is we have to keep trying to get information out there,” Tarvin said. “I’ve always said, you may not agree with our plan or the decision to go on the ballot, but if you’re going to vote no, I want you to vote from an informed position.
“Whether people agree or disagree that it needs to be done now, it’s going to have to be done at some point,” he said. “We believe this is the best time to do it.”
