SAYBROOK TOWNSHIP — It’s full-speed ahead for the Wade Avenue site, but with a 2005 budget and 2008 construction costs.
The Ohio School Facilities Commission is looking for ways to conserve costs as the Ashtabula Area City School District now enters the second phase of its new school building program, an official said Wednesday.
The district is building a new junior high next to the new high school on Sanborn Road and the school board last week approved the purchase of property on Wade Avenue to build campus-style elementary schools at one location.
“We are proceeding with the original master plan to build five elementary schools,” said Gary J. Kasper, senior project administrator for the OSFC. “It’s quite obvious that we have to deal with a 2005 budget ... we’ve been waiting for about two years for the (school) board to decide on a site. We couldn’t proceed without the property.”
Kasper said he’s now confident the district is “in good shape” and can move forward with its building plans. No money spent on preparing the site will be lost and there are ways to tweak the budget, he said.
“Having all of the elementary schools on one site helps a great deal,” Kasper said. “The buildings are typical buildings and that’s helpful, too.”
Each school will house about 450 students and cost about $10 million, he said.
Since the November election, school board president Janine Trebuchon-Wertz, and members Michael Franklin and Alfred DeCato have voted to move ahead with the campus-style buildings at Wade Avenue. Members Steve Candela and David Sheldon voted against it.
Before the election, the anti-Wade Avenue people held the majority on the school board. Then-president R.J. Valentic, and Candela and Sheldon voted against the Wade Avenue site, while Trebuchon-Wertz and Franklin voted for it. No other site was brought forward during this time.
“They never had a viable plan,” Franklin said. “No plan plus no action equals wasted money.”
The Wade Avenue site is suitable because it touches the city at Ohio Avenue and, therefore, easily can be annexed into the city, Trebuchon-Wertz said.
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