Superintendent Michelle Patrick, who spoke Monday to Rotary Club members about it, said the school board passed a resolution to put the 1.4-mill permanent improvement levy on the November ballot. If Clark County voters approve, it would be about $49 a year, or about $4 a month, for a $100,000 property value.
The levy is estimated to generate $4,469,000 annually, according to the Clark County Auditor’s Office.
The total cost of the building project would be about $63 million. CTC will contribute about 38%, or $24.5 million, and the state will contribute 62%, or about $38.7 million.
CTC also identified additional classroom facilities, equipment, furnishings and site improvements needed for additional enrollment in the amount of $26.2 million that will be covered locally, which totals $50.7 million.
If the levy doesn’t pass, Patrick said they will go back “to the table” to look at things and “continue to educate in our space we will have with the undersized classrooms.”
Administrators partnered with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) to help finance the project because the commission provides a portion of state funding for school construction projects that meet its requirements.
The OFCC process started in 2017 when Patrick asked for a review of the assessment last completed in 2005. In late 2022, CTC had moved to the top of the OFCC’s list for school facilities co-funding from the state.
The OFCC’s recent assessment estimates renovation costs to be more than $51 million and the cost to build a new facility, with similar square footage, at $66 million. Since the cost to renovate is 77% of the cost to replace with a new facility, which exceeds the OFCC’s two-thirds rule, they recommended building new and will provide matching funds.
Patrick said since they are still a Joint Vocational School District (JVSD), one of the things that defines them is that they pull from several different school districts to one location, which she says is “way more expensive to do anything to our buildings.”
“(The OFCC) has been doing this for over 20 years. They have never co-funded a JVSD as a new build. They’ve only ever done renovations, add-ons, but we will be the first one, should things go well,” Patrick said. “That would allow us to have a brand new building built for this community in order to launch workforce development for the future.”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
A location on the current CTC-owned land to the south of the administration building has undergone initial testing and could likely accommodate a new facility, according to representatives from Schorr Architects and the Community Design Alliance, who are working with CTC during the planning process.
The CTC, formerly known as the Springfield-Clark County Joint Vocational School, offers high school students from Clark County the choice of 22 programs in high-demand career fields. The programs and classes are on Selma Road in seven buildings, most of which are more than 50 years old, and enrollment is limited by classroom sizes. Between 2013 and 2023, the school turned away more than 700 students, including 150 for the upcoming school year.
For more information or to follow the progress on the project, visit SCCTC.org/FacilityProject.
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