Facility Planning Process Enters Decisions Phase
After over two years of research, 48 community meetings, 2,600 community touchpoints, and multiple surveys that gathered resident feedback, we are now in the Decisions Phase of the Facility Planning Process.
To give you an update, last September I presented recommendations to the Board of Education regarding a Master Facilities Plan that was carefully crafted based on community feedback. The recommendations would renovate Stevenson Elementary and Grandview Heights High School and building a new school for students in grades 4-8, located on or near the same site where Edison Intermediate/Larson Middle School currently sits, at a potential cost of $45-50 million. The plan also includes an additional $2 million in recommended renovations to current K-12 community and district athletic facilities north of Grandview Heights High School. These estimated amounts could change based on the selection of materials and inflation.
As part of the Decisions Phase, we have established an independent Financial Advisory Committee (FAC) comprised of community members with high level business and financial backgrounds who are proven leaders. The FAC will meet from January through March to make final recommendations to the superintendent regarding the following: both funding the facility plan and a possible operating levy; whether to engage in the entire recommendation or components of the recommendation; how the plan will be phased-in; how to address classroom swing space during construction; and the evaluation of our existing Permanent Improvement levy. Based on the FAC’s recommendations to the superintendent, the Board of Education will consider whether or not to place a levy on the November 2018 ballot.
The Facility Advisory Committee community members include: Ricky Day, Principal, Day Companies; Mike Leach, Sr. VP/CFO, Nationwide Property & Casualty Insurance; Katie Matney, Chief Philanthropy Officer, The Women's Fund of Central Ohio; Jack Kukura, Chief Investment Officer, Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing; Mike Morosky, Partner, Lazear Capital; Clarence Simmons, President/CEO, SIMCO Real Estate Development & Construction; Melanie Mueller, Senior Analyst, Grange Insurance; Blake West, Sr. Investment Professional, Nationwide Insurance; Mike Curtin, Retired Vice Chairman & COO, The Dispatch Printing Company, and former State Representative; Teri Alexander, President, Alexander Financial Planning; Jennifer Voit, Director of Primary Care Network, Nationwide Children's Hospital; Doug Daughters, Director of C & I Sales, IGS Energy; David Ward, VP of Finance and Asset Management, The Daimler Group; and Steve Papineau, Owner/CEO, Shelby Management. Ex-officio members are Ray DeGraw, Mayor, City of Grandview Heights, and Kent Studebaker, Mayor, Village of Marble Cliff.
Please know that no final decisions have been made regarding the amount, scope of work, or exact costs of any potential levy.
The most important part of this process is your involvement. Grandview Heights Schools will continue to engage our community so that we can shape the plan together and determine what is best for the short and long term financial sustainability of our school district. Residents will have more opportunities to offer input to the Financial Advisory Committee’s findings by attending a community meeting, taking a survey, and attending community coffees.
We welcome any community member to host a coffee so that we can continue to inform and answer questions about the Facility Planning Process. Being able to share information with residents in this way is very helpful and we are looking forward to more opportunities for residents to join the conversation. Please contact Hayley Head at [email protected] to schedule a coffee.