On Nov. 5, Chardon Schools will ask voters to approve a $76 million, 37-year bond issue to fund the construction of a new grade-six-to-12 building.
On Nov. 5, Chardon Schools will ask voters to approve a $76 million, 37-year bond issue to fund the construction of a new grade-six-to-12 building.
The bond will cost homeowners $185.50 annually per $100,000 property valuation, according to the Geauga County Auditor’s Office.
In the last push before ballots are cast, the district is asking voters to see problems for themselves with building tours and social media posts detailing issues plaguing the 68-year-old high school.
The 120,000-square-foot building was first erected in 1951 as an elementary school, with additions in 1953, 1957, 1964 and 1974.
The bond would allow for construction of a new building on the current site of the high school track, which means construction would continue through the school year without displacing students into temporary trailer classrooms.
However, as a result, the existing track would have to be moved to the current football stadium, requiring updates to that complex, including permanent, ADA-accessible stands, restrooms and locker rooms for both home and visiting teams.
The new combined-grade building, separated into two wings for middle and high school students respectively, would be built in phase one of the project. A second phase, which is not included in Issue 21 and would not be proposed earlier than 2026, could include a new elementary school and athletic facilities, as well as a new administrative building, but any plans for phase two are conceptual in status.
Issue 21 would also fund abatement and demolition of Chardon High School, Munson Elementary School and the district bus garage. Grades two through five would move to the middle school, kindergarten and first to Park Elementary School on Chardon Square, and the preschool would remain at Maple Elementary School.
Staff and administrators, as well as volunteers from the Citizens for Chardon Schools campaign group, have led the public on informational tours through the high school building to allow people to see firsthand the issues of age, wear and design limiting the district’s ability to simply bring the building up to a modern state.
Last year, district voters approved a 3.9-mill operating levy, and the district chose to close one elementary school and turn another into an in-house preschool. While the levy and reconfiguration have saved the district about $1 million in 2019, those savings have only benefited the operating fund and cannot be used to pay for facilities upgrades.
The district uses funds from its permanent improvement levy for building repair and maintenance. Issue 21 would include a state-mandated 0.5-mill fund for long-term maintenance costs associated with new facilities.
Although Murray said 17 percent of CHS students receive free lunch benefits, lawmakers consider Chardon a wealthy district compared to others in the state. Because of this, Chardon is not eligible for state construction funds for several years.
In social media posts, some critical of the bond issue have claimed school buildings are not being repaired in order to push the public towards approving new facilities. Superintendent Michael Hanlon pushed back on this argument, explaining the PI levy simply does not create enough funding to address all of the maintenance issues.
Using the high school as an example, Hanlon said a 2016 assessment by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission estimated a cost of $1.9 million dollars to repair — or, in this case, replace — the school’s roof.
Since 2016 costs for the repair have increased about 15 percent, Hanlon said, and the PI fund generates $1.3 million dollars annually. Since 2009, the state has pushed school bus purchases onto local districts, which takes about $300,000 per year come out of Chardon’s PI fund, leaving approximately $1 million for other permanent improvements.
“As you can see, there is not enough to do a roof replacement in one process,” Hanlon said. “It would need to be done over a series of years as small projects while also leaving funds to do other PI projects in the district.”
However, maintenance of the buildings – even Hambden, which no longer houses students – is ongoing.
An FAQ list on the district website states the average age of Chardon’s buildings is 70 years old, surpassing the normal life expectancy of school buildings in Ohio.
“School buildings do not reach the age of our buildings without careful attention to proper maintenance and upkeep,” the district states. “Our maintenance staff continues to do their best to keep our schools safe and in the best shape possible. This includes spending thousands of dollars each year on basic and Band-Aid repairs to expensive, outdated systems that no longer function efficiently. However, we have reached the point where repairs are no longer enough.”
