Northeastern superintendent: Construction on new schools ‘coming along well’

The Northeastern site is expected to open in the fall of 2022 and the Kenton Ridge site is anticipated to open in 2023.

“At the Northeastern site, they are moving right along with putting the brick veneer on the building, metal panels on the roof, drywalling in classrooms,” said Superintendent John Kronour. “ We are still on schedule in that building for opening for the next school year.”

Kronour said the Kenton Ridge site is not as far along as the Northeastern building but it is also “coming along as well.”

“A lot of the concrete masonry block units are up, both gyms are pretty well done as well as the dining area, they are putting up steel structure for the academic portion of the building... pouring the floors in a lot of the areas,” he said. “It is moving right along as well. It’s definitely taking shape with the steel going up and all of the block getting put in.”

One of the new buildings will be located on the northeastern side of the district, adjacent to the current South Vienna school, and the other building will be on the property near the Kenton Ridge side.

South Vienna is slated for demolition as soon as possible, Kronour said. The other four buildings — Northeastern, Kenton Ridge, Rolling Hills and Northridge — have been financed for demolition.

The construction projects are roughly $4 million under budget. The extra funds can be used toward additional projects to the buildings once they are complete.

“We’re continuing to work on that. We’ve had discussion with the board,” Kronour said. “We can’t really move forward with those types of projects until we are substantially complete with the new buildings. We still have two years until Kenton Ridge is done and have to make sure we have all of the money for the new buildings before we have those other projects.”

Voters approved a 37-year, $79 million bond issue for two new PreK-12 facilities in May 2018. In addition, the state will contribute 40%, or $40 million, to the project through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, bringing the total cost of the two schools to nearly $120 million.