Since 2000, Boardman Local School Enrollment Has Declined While Total Revenues Have Increased From $35.5 Million To $67 Million.
     
      47.6 Per Cent Of Students Economically Disadvantaged
     
      BY JOHN A. DANRELL JR.
      associate editor
      In a four minute message/video on You-Tube that was not distributed to the entire, taxpaying Boardman community, Boardman Local School District Supt. Timothy L. Saxton and School Board member John Landers raised the scepter of abandoning buildings that currently house Center Intermediate School, as well as Glenwood Jr. High School, and construct a new school building that would combine fifth though eighth grades.
      Saxton opened his remarks saying that a 12-member committee that includes school officials, administrators and ‘a nice dose of parents’ (an architect, an engineer and a parent with children in multiple school buildings) “are all advising and giving us input as to what a new replacement to what a new Center Intermediate could look like.”
      Saxton said the 12-member committee has been looking at how school financing impacts construction, has looked at the ‘current state’ of Center Intermediate School and looked at new construction concepts.
      The school superintendent indicated the committee “is working to see how we could partner with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) to potentially build a new building.”
      The OFCC is a state agency that collaborates with the Ohio Legislature to establish the order of replacing school buildings across the state. The level of state aid provided by the OFCC is largely determined by ranking criteria. These criteria favor districts with relatively low property values. The state subsidy typically requires funding provided from the school district seeking such monies.
      Landers said sometime around 2014 that Boardman Local Schools engaged with the facilities commission “to evaluate potentially replacing Center.” He claimed at that time, the commission would provide 17 per cent of the needed funds for such work.
      “Now that figure is 31 per cent,” Landers said, adding “that allows more substantial conversation as we build a district master plan with that state agency.”
      Noting the facilities commission recommended replacing the Center Intermediate building, Landers said “one thing that was a surprise is they are calling to replace Glenwood Jr. High School (built in the 1960s) possibly in one building, or some sort of combined footprint.”
      Saxton then noted “We want to build this without pushing an additional tax burden onto our community...The good news is we passed a continuous improvement levy in November, 2022.” He added, “In the mix is changing interest rates,,,Are interest rates ready for us to move forward and go ahead with the financing?”
      Landers then said “Having separate fifth and sixth grade; and seventh and eighth grade buildings is important to us. Each would have separate wings and still sort of work like their own separate school...and would have shared spaces like a cafeteria or gymnasium.”
      Saxton concluded the video address saying he didn’t know where a new building would be located, noting “That’s a greater conversation with a greater-sized committee.”
      He added “We wouldn’t break ground for three years, and kids would be in the building in five years.”
      In was less than a decade ago, in Feb., 2016, that the Boardman Local School Board voted to place all fifth and sixth grade students into Center Middle School, and all seventh and eighth grade students into Glenwood Middle School.
      According to then Supt. Frank Lazzari, the realignment would help to “maximize educational and extra-curricular opportunities for students.”
      According to figures provided by Boardman Local Schools and the Ohio Department of Education (an audit released in June 2000), the local school district had total revenues of some $35.5 million. 311 certificated and 259 non-certificated or classified staff were employed and the district served an enrollment of 4,699 students.
      Almost a quarter century later, the Boardman Local School District has total annual revenues of some $67 million, while enrollment has dropped to 3,705 students. Today the district employs 271 certificated staff members and 244 classified employees.
      According to the district, 47.6 per cent of students attending the Boardman Local School are “economically disadvantaged.”