“It’s just awesome to see our community come together to actually see the buildings come to fruition,” said Superintendent John Kronour. “All of the work over the last five years to get the levy passed and then get the plans and the buildings actually built, really is exciting because its such a great opportunity for our students.”
The Kenton Ridge Marching Cougars kicked off the ceremony by playing “The Star-Spangled Banner.” They also performed the school’s alma mater and ended the ceremony with the fight song, and the Cougar cheerleaders performed.
The campus will open for the new school year starting on Tuesday, Aug. 29.
The three-story, 247,855-square-foot building features separate entrances for the high school and elementary school sides, as well as areas for parent drop-off and buses, two new gyms, science and media labs, vocal music and band space, athletics fields with a new all-season track and press box, and more.
“I extend my heartfelt thanks to the esteemed voters in our community for their support in successfully establishing two new state-of-the-art campuses,” said Kronour. “The Kenton Ridge building is a beacon of hope for our children, offering them boundless opportunities to learn, grow and prosper. We are ecstatic to leverage this positive momentum to roar into the future.”
The old Kenton Ridge and Northeastern high schools will be demolished at a later date. However, the items inside Kenton Ridge as well as the Northridge and Rolling Hills buildings and the contents will be auctioned off at www.govdeals.com, and by searching “Northeastern.”
The district built a new campus for Northeastern for about $42 million, and it opened last fall on the northeastern side of the district, adjacent to former South Vienna school. For the two new campuses, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission picked up about 40% of the cost. The architect for both projects is Ruetschle Architects and the construction manager at-risk (CMR) is Shook Touchstone.
The district combined several school buildings into the two new buildings, moving from Northeastern High and Middle School, Kenton Ridge High School, Northridge Middle and Elementary School, Rolling Hills Elementary and South Vienna into just two buildings going forward.
Voters approved a 37-year, $79 million bond issue for two new pre-K-through-12 facilities in May 2018.
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