The Riverside Board of Education has voted to approve - and move forward with - the District's Facilities Plan which consists of a three-phase plan to build new schools.
The District’s Facilities Committee has been working on a plan to try and solve the issues of declining enrollment and worsening conditions of all the current facilities within the district.
The District Facilities Plan is a three phase plan:
Phase I - In November of 2016, the District passed a 1.92-mill bond levy (Issue 5) that will raise $38 million to construct two larger elementary schools while closing Hale Road, Hadden, Leroy and Madison Avenue elementary schools upon completion of the new construction. The new buildings will be located at the current Madison Avenue site in Painesville Township and 12428 Concord-Hambden Road in Concord Township.
Phase II - Raise approximately $77 million which would require the passage of approximately a 4.3-mill bond levy (at a later date) for construction purposes that would construct a new 6-12 campus (a 6-8 Middle School and a 9-12 High School).
Phase III - Repurpose LaMuth Middle School into an elementary school that would require no additional funding and then close Melridge Elementary and/or Buckeye Elementary (depending on enrollment at that time).
In conclusion, the District would have three elementary schools at about 600 to 650 students each and a 6-12 campus.
An estimated timeline would have Phase I being completed by August of 2019 and Phase II being completed by August of 2021.
More details of the plan and the timeline can be found here. More details about current enrollment, building ratings and estimated repair costs vs rebuilding costs can be found here. This plan coincides with the recommendation from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission Facilities Assessment report that recommends the District to replace all of its current buildings except LaMuth.
As always, all Board Meetings are open to the public. You can view all the Board Meeting dates here.
To see the appraisal of Leroy Elementary School, click here. To see the appraisal of Hadden Elementary School, click here.
The district also scheduled informational community meetings at each school in the District to inform residents about the Facilities Plan in the Spring of 2016. Those meetings were open to the public where participants were encouraged to ask questions about the plan.
Throughout the summer and the fall of 2016, the district held more than 30 smaller community/neighborhood meetings to discss this plan with interested residents.