BEAVERCREEK — A Community Advisory Team made up of residents, elected leaders, staff, and business owners has recommended that the Beavercreek School District build a new high school.
That recommendation was made after a year-long process to develop a Master Facility Plan. The plan was requested to address the district’s current overcrowding and projections that suggest up to 2,000 additional students will enter the district in the next decade.
“The truth is, we are to a time where our budget cannot keep up with our facility needs and rapidly growing enrollment, which will only increase over time,” said Superintendent Paul Otten in a statement on the Beavercreek City Schools website. “We have stretched our budget as far as possible and significant student enrollment growth is affecting our facilities, far exceeding the district’s ability to just make do without implementing major improvements and additions to the learning spaces to increase capacity.”
Otten stressed that no decision has been made by the Board of Education.
Under the recommended option, the district’s preschool will expand into the Central Office and the Central Office will move into Main Elementary.
All elementary buildings would house students in K-6, Ankeney and Coy Middle Schools would become elementary schools, and the existing high school building would become one central middle school for grades 7-8. Gymnasiums would be built at Fairbrook, Parkwood, and Valley elementary schools.
A new high school building with a capacity for 3,000 students would be built that would bring ninth graders, currently at Ferguson Hall, back into the high school building.
The committee estimates that the cost of the proposal would be around $8 per month, or $96 per year, for every $100,000 in home valuation. That estimate is based on a 38-year bond issue.
The option to build a new high school was one of several options considered. Another plan considered would add capacity at the high school and Ankeney Middle School, build a new elemenary school, and add seats and Fairbrook and Valley Elementary schools.
Renovations would also be done to Ferguson Hall, which currently houses freshman students, as well as the high school fieldhouse, auxiliary gym, and auditorium. Gymnasiums would be built at Fairbrook, Parkwood, and Valley elementary schools.
Also considered was a redistricting plan, but that was ultimately rejected because redistricting does not change the capacity issues now or in the future.
The final option considered was the purchase or lease of trailers. The committee expressed concerns about safety and security as two of the main concerns of that option.
The full presentation, which includes all the options, can be viewed on the Beavercreek City Schools website: https://bit.ly/2L0Kz8s
The Beavercreek Board of Education is expected to discuss the Master Facility Plan and its recommendations at its Sept. 12 meeting. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at the Beavercreek Board of Education, 3040 Kemp Road in Beavercreek.
