Wednesday, May 22, 2013

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9/13/2012 - South Side Leader
     

By Maria Lindsay

Photos: Maria Lindsayt

LAKEMORE — Construction on the new $42 million Springfield Local Schools building for students in seventh through 12th grades is progressing well, according to Springfield Local Schools Superintendent Bill Stauffer.

The building is being funded through a 38-year, 4.38-mill bond issue approved in 2010 by 55 percent of the voters, along with a 23-year, 0.5-mill levy for maintenance. The bond issue will raise $33.7 million, and the Ohio School Facilities Commission is contributing another $8.1 million toward the cost of the project, according to district officials.

Stauffer lead a tour through the building Sept. 12 and said it will be ready for students and staff to move into for the start of the next school year in August.

Shown at top right is the entrance to the 175,000-square-foot building.

The new building includes separate wings for students in seventh and eighth grades and a slightly longer one for those in ninth through 12th grades. The area outside and between the new wings will become an outdoor learning lab, shown bottom right. Some classrooms include extended learning spaces outside the rooms to allow for group interaction. One area is shown at top left. Larger science and art classrooms will allow for more “hands-on learning,” according to Stauffer.

Separate high school and middle school gyms, a library with a computer lab, a 650-seat auditorium, a community room with an outside entrance and a cafeteria with an outdoor eating area also are planned. The middle school gym is shown bottom left.

As part of the construction plan, the two current high school buildings at Sanitarium and Canton roads will be demolished as soon as the school year is done, May 30. Spring Hill Junior High, currently housing seventh and eighth grades and located on Lessig Avenue, will become an elementary school with the close of Roosevelt Elementary for the start of school in 2014.

— By Maria Lindsay

     

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