LUCAS — The Lucas Local School District is inviting the community to discuss the potential construction of a new school building at the end of this month.
The meeting will take place Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lucas Community Center.
“It’s basically a meeting for the community to see where we’re at going forward, looking at the possibility of building a new school,” school board member Wayne Camp said. “We want to be forthright with them on what we’re doing, what we’re looking at so they can have their input on whether they want this to go further or not.”
The school board has been discussing the possibility of a new building for a couple of years. The district also formed a master planning group made up of Lucas residents to get community input.
Now the board wants to expand that conversation and engage Lucas as a whole.
“We want people to come with open ears and bring their questions and their thoughts,” superintendent Brad Herman said. “We want to bring it to the community, so the community knows the work that’s been done and can give some feedback.”
Herman said talks about a new building began organically, while the board was discussing maintenance and permanent improvements to the district’s existing facilities.
They found the cost of updating and bringing existing buildings up to code was significant.
“As we were having those conversations at board meetings, we had some community members say ‘For some of these costs, maybe it would make sense to consider new facilities,’ ” he recalled.
Lucas would likely receive some state funding for the project through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC)’s Exceptional Needs Program, which designates Lucas as a “lapsed” district.
Under the program, Lucas will receive the highest priority available for state funding once a local funding share is secured through a ballot measure.
The OFCC’s website states the ENP program identifies facilities “in most need of replacement.”
According to Herman, the high school qualified for the ENP program in 2005, but the school board chose not to pursue the project. The high school building is safe and well-maintained, but very old. The original wing of the building was constructed in 1910 and another portion was built in the 1930s. Thus, the cost of modernizing the high school down the road would be considerable.
Because of the district’s size, the state would likely require the construction of one new K-12 facility if Lucas enrolls in the ENP.
“It feels like right now, in talking with the OFCC, a potential new K-12 facility may be the best long-term solution,” Herman said.
The administration and school board plan to use the meeting as a chance to inform Lucas residents about what “next steps” would be required if the district chooses to pursue the project.
“We want to be as transparent as we possibly can on this whole thing,” he said. “If (the board) is going to ask the community to support this financially, open their pocketbooks a little bit, they want to make sure the community knows what they’re being asked to support and get their feedback.”
It’s too late to put an issue on the November ballot, but the board could ask Lucas residents to support a new building levy as early as next year.
“I think they’re entertaining a potential ballot issue and asking for community support in the very near future,” Herman said. “There is some potential talk of maybe next spring, maybe in May. But that’s not finalized yet.”
