“Along with the community, the Board of Education and staff have been eagerly anticipating this important moment in our district’s history,” said Dennis Henry, Greenon Board of Education president. “We hope to see everyone out to celebrate the groundbreaking and to be part of this exciting step of building our future together.”
PREVIOUS: Greenon still researching ideas for new K-12 school
The event is expected to last 30 to 45 minutes and will include short speeches by Henry and Enon Mayor Tim Howard. The Greenon Knight Marching Band will also give a performance at the event.
Voters approved a $36 million bond issue to build a new pre-k through 12th-grade school by about 500 votes. The 6.98-mill bond will cost a taxpayer who owns a $100,000 property in the district a little more than $20 a month. The state will pick up $18 million of the costs through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.
School officials said they were able to save about $4 million by refinancing some of the bonds.
The new building will be constructed on the current site of the Indian Valley Intermediate School. The construction will take about 20 months, SHP Leading Design Architect Charlie Jahnigen said.
Indian Valley will remain open during construction but will close once the new school opens, as will Enon Primary and Greenon High School. The new school will be for all students in the district, but officials said they intend to divide the building and use scheduling tactics so that students of different ages won’t intermingle.
District representatives visited other schools across Ohio to seek ideas for their new school, Greenon Superintendent Brad Silvus said. Silvus said they learned both what went well for those districts and what Greenon should avoid.
EXTRA: Greenon schools officials tour other sites for new building ideas
Input from the community is a top priority as the district plans for construction, Silvus said.
“We consider the community to be a vital part of the process of building a new school and look forward to working together to create a new facility that will be a source of pride for the entire district,” he said.
The District held numerous community meetings before and after the bond issue was approved at the ballot. During the schematic phase of the project, the district collected input from community members, teachers and parents.
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