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District residents to help develop GSD
Master Plan
By Lyn Bliss, Senior Scribe
www.darkecountyseniors.us
Greenville Schools “Facilities Committee” includes approximately 45
members of the community, including private citizens, administrators,
Board members and teachers.
The Greenville School District Board of Education is faced with trying
to make a decision on what IS best for the community – as viewed by the
members of that community. Toward that end, they have formally
expressed their interest in the Ohio School Facilities Commission’s
(OSFC) Classroom Facilities Assistance Program (CFAP).
Therefore, in the effort to gain input from the community and involve
the community in any planning for future projects, the Greenville Board
of Education (GBOE) has included approximately 45 residents of the
district to form a Facilities Committee to develop and finalize a
Master Plan. The OSFC requires that schools who desire to join CFAP
must have a master plan drawn up and a decision reached by May 1.
The GBOE has assembled a cross-section of community members to serve on
the Committee. The group consists not only of citizens, but also GBOE
members, administrators and teachers. The group held the first of four
meetings recently at South School. Bruce Miller and Rudy Quinter,
representatives from Garman/Miller Architects-Engineers (Minster, Ohio)
were present to explain the process required by the CFAP.
The OSFC has assessed the facilities in the Greenville School District
and recommends that Woodland, East, South and the Junior High be
removed from service; with renovations being recommended for the High
School. There are two rules upon which these recommendations are based.
The schools must have a student population of more than 350 and the
renovation costs must exceed more than 76% of the replacement cost of
the building.
If the Master Plan includes new buildings, then, under CFAP the
District would have one year to receive the approval of the voters.
That would mean there would be four opportunities to place the issue on
a ballot – November 2011; February, May and August 2012.
The first Facilities Committee meeting had four goals – introduce OSFC,
discuss Master Plan options, discuss tour of other recently completed
OSFC projects, and form focus groups. The focus groups were in
six distinct areas: Pre-K through fourth academics; fifth through
eighth academics; ninth through twelfth academics; arts/media
center/community/senior citizens; health/PE/athletics; and
grounds/maintenance/mechanical.
The focus groups met and discussed how they would approach the
questions relevant to the master plan. The goal is to have all Focus
Group members tour the Greenville Schools’ facilities during school
hours and also tour one or more new CFAP facilities. With those
exposures, the group is then to identify likes/dislikes and form a
consensus of needs/desires for the group’s specific area of
responsibility and the building/site in general.
OSFC is offering $18-26 million for new and/or renovated school
facilities. This money covers only academic items: construction, loose
furnishings, land survey, soil borings, landscaping, sidewalks,
driveways, parking lots, PE softball fields, demolition/abatement and
LEED. Other items that would require a Local Funding Initiative (LFI),
receiving no state funds, are additional classrooms, land acquisition,
auditoriums, spectator gyms, district administration offices,
football/baseball/soccer/tracks, computers, and bus garages.
In addition to a master plan, the CFAP program requires that at least
two schools be included in the plan for funding. Several options were
presented by Miller and Quinter as possibilities. These included
different replacement/renovation options and the cost involved in each.
However, it will be up to the Facilities Commission to recommend a
master plan to the GBOE.
The Facilities Committee plans to conduct tours and hold three more
meetings before they reach a consensus regarding the master plan they
will recommend.
Members of the community wishing to contribute input or request
participation in the planning process are encouraged to contact Susie
Riegle or Jon McGreevey at (937) 548-3185 . Riegle may be emailed
at: sriegle@greenville.k12.oh.us
and McGreevey may be emailed at: jmcgreevey@greenville.k12.oh.us
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