EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous version of this article misidentified Nate Arnold as the president of the Lucas Local School board. The president is Tim Cooper.
LUCAS — Lucas Local Schools will likely have an issue on the May 2022 ballot to determine whether or not to build a new K-12 building.
The district held a community meeting Tuesday to gauge feedback on the project. The meeting was hosted by Supt. Brad Herman and representatives from Garmann Miller, an education facility design and planning firm hired by the district.
“I think the meeting went very well. I thought it shared a lot of information with the community and it gave the community the opportunity to ask some questions,” said Tim Cooper, president of the Lucas Local Schools board of education.
“I think a lot of people had that positive attitude also about the whole idea of building the building.”
If the ballot measure passes, Lucas will be eligible for funds from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC), which provides support for the construction and renovation of public K-12 schools.
Since Lucas already has priority status with the OFCC, the cost of a new building would actually be less than maintaining the area’s aging facilities long-term, Herman said.
“Once OFCC makes their contribution, it really ends up being a smaller local share to build a brand new K to 12 building than it does to do anything in between or less than that,” he said.
Garmann Miller estimates that a new K-12 facility would cost approximately $34,185,516. The firm projects that the state will kick in $8,067,340 — leaving a local share of approximately $26,118,176.
Meanwhile, it would cost about $31 million to maintain the school buildings long-term, with no OFCC funding available.
How did we get here?
Discussions about upgrading the district’s facilities began in 2018. The school board solicited bids from architects, who examined the district’s physical facilities and education programs in detail to create a capital improvements plan for the district. The board awarded the contract to Garmann Miller in November 2018.
Estimates from Garmann Miller in 2019 found it would cost around $25.4 million to maintain Lucas’ three school buildings in the future. Those costs would include both short-term repairs and long-term renovations to bring the building up to code.
That cost estimate has since risen to $31 million due to inflation.
The high cost of renovations led school board and community members to question whether it might be worth it to replace the buildings instead.
“At that point, that’s when it raised eyebrows to say, ‘Wait a second, maybe we ought to take a look at just building something new. What does that cost?’ ” Herman recalled.
A facilities task force group made up of Lucas community members formed in November 2019 and began considering all the options, then made an official recommendation to the board of education. The group recommended the construction of a new K-12 facility on the 45-acre parcel owned by the district.
The parcel is located on North Road, across the street from the current campus.
What would a new building look like?
In order to be eligible for OFCC funding, the project must follow certain guidelines, which is why Lucas would build one K-12 facility.
“If we’re going to do a project with OFCC, they will not co-fund a building with less than, I believe, 350 kids,” Herman said. “They are not in the business of co-funding multiple buildings with those smaller student populations.”
Lucas has an enrollment of over 500 students, but OFCC projects that enrollment will decline slightly in the years to come.
Nevertheless, classroom sizes will not be impacted. According to Herman, the OFCC requires classrooms to be a minimum of 810 square feet.
“An 810 square-foot classroom is bigger than every classroom, outside of say a lab space or (career tech education) class, that we have in the district,” he said.
Lucas also has some funds set aside for “locally-funded initiatives” — expanding on parts of the building that may not be OFCC-funded, but are important to the community. These spaces could include agricultural, industrial tech and family and consumer science classrooms.
The building would be approximately 91,083 square feet. A preliminary design would include 23 academic classrooms (not including specials), a 10,000 square-foot competition gym, a life-skills lab, an agriculture education lab, two art rooms, an industrial-tech classroom, an instrumental music room and a business/computer lab.
Herman couldn’t answer specific design questions, saying the final layout won’t be developed until after funding is approved.
“If this goes to the ballot and the community passes that, that’s when the real design work really happens,” he explained. “The true deep dive and design work will take probably a good 12 months.”
If the ballot measure passes and state funding comes through right away, the process could be completed in about three years.
“We’re looking at probably around a three-year process, so a year of design and about two years of construction until we would have students walking in the doors,” Herman said.
Herman does not expect a delay in state funding, based on the district’s priority status and the relatively small size of the project.
How much will it cost me?
To raise the funding for a new school, Lucas could put either a property tax or an income tax on the ballot.
Preliminary estimates found that a 37-year, 9.85 mill property tax bond issue would cost homeowners approximately $28.72 per month for every $100,000 of home value.
The median home value in Lucas according to the 2021 U.S. Census is $121,500.
“The biggest (question) was ‘What it was going to cost me?'” Cooper said. “I think they were pleasantly surprised that it’s not really outrageous.”
Herman said Lucas residents present at the meeting tended to favor a property tax. Businesses make up 44.69 percent of the district’s property tax base — 43.38 percent of that is public utilities.
In contrast, a 30-year income tax bond would cost a family with the area’s median household income of $65,887 approximately $96.06 per month.
The district hopes to have more community meetings in the future to solicit feedback about the project and what residents would want from a new school building.
“The number one goal when we get to the end of this process is to have something that’s reflective of the community’s needs and desires, whether that’s a new building or not,” Herman said.
Cooper encouraged Lucas residents to reach out to Herman or any of the school board members if they have questions about the project.
