Athletic Hall of Fame Inductees - 2007 - Huron City Schools

Huron Set to Realign
and Refurbish Schools
What is the wisest and best use of Huron
City School District’s present
school buildings? A perennial question
on the minds of conscientious board
members anywhere, but especially poignant
in Huron these days. Our buildings
are ageing, and as the Medicare
administrators are learning, advanced
age brings problems, costly ones. Perhaps
the chief problem is growing energy
costs, that is, buildings designed
decades ago when gasoline was .23 per
gallon, electricity pennies per kilowatt
hour, and gas lights were being sold as
an esthetic enhancement to the white
picket fence out front. So as the man in
the ad said some years back, “You can
pay me now, or you can pay me later.”
The Huron district is acting to take advantage
of state programs available now.
The oldest building, McCormick Middle
School on Ohio Street opened back in
the middle of WWII and is showing the
most wear and need for costly repairs,
maintenance, and upgrading. Shawnee
School on Cleveland Road originally
served as an East Side elementary starting
in 1953 until enrollment dropped.
Now it houses the Montessori School
and many Erie County service providers
under rental agreements with the
board which houses its own offices in
“the basement” of the building. Again
it is beginning to show its age and is
highly energy inefficient. Finally, the
youngest elementary, Woodlands on the
West Side, opened in the early 70’s after
sitting empty until the community
finally passed an operating levy. It has
had a classroom addition and gymnasium
added since 2000. The high
school is in the midst of a phased improvement,
the latest occurring this
past summer with the entire first floor
academic and shop wing refurbished.
A while back, the Board of Education
began discussions with Bowling Green
State University about possibly expanding
their summer playhouse usage at
McCormick Middle School to year
around for their productions and even
classes. Those discussions are now
near the point where the University is
willing to invest in the building dollars
that the school district does not have in
exchange for an increased presence
there. This obviously would necessitate
reshuffling some of the students
presently there into other buildings.
A plan will now go forward that would
put all pre-school through second grade
students in the Shawnee School building,
grades 3 through 6 into Woodlands
Elementary, and leave grades 7 and 8 in
the McCormick Building. Such a
change would save the expense of moving
most of the junior high students to
Shawnee and having to construct a gymnasium
for them there and then stuffing
the remainder into Woodlands. No
more students in all kinds of inclement
weather racing between buildings
for lunch, gym and other classes, or
assemblies. (How ever shall they stay
in shape! More carrots on the menu!)
The rental “tenants” in Shawnee would
take over the McCormick Annex building
on Ohio Street and the board would
remain in their basement digs. Bottom
line - room would be freed up for Bowling
Green in the McCormick building.
Of course, every taxpayer is clamoring,
“Where will the money come
from?” The renovations at Shawnee
and McCormick will be paid for as a
H.B. 264 project. This was a program
instituted some years back at the state
level to assist districts in saving energy,
making their buildings greener
– before that term was ever used. So
anything that ultimately saves energy
can be part of the project – more efficient
boilers and hot water heaters,
thermal windows and doors, lighting
upgrades that practically run on hamster
generators yet don’t leave the students
squinting. All these and more
are part of the plan to give the district a
new, leaner look. The dollars saved from
increasing energy costs are then used
to pay off the low interest loan from the
state over a number of years. The
higher the energy costs, the sooner the
payback. Kind of ironic, not? The projected
savings will be great because
both Shawnee and McCormick have
been banging around somewhere in
limbo for years as various administrations
debated what to do with the buildings.
Now we know
Sound terribly complicated? Maybe,
and perhaps to the teachers and students
who will be juggled around to
make the plan work it will seem that
way for a while. But stranger moves
have been made in the past and actually
worked, to the benefit of the entire student
body – and the taxpayers – once
everyone settled in. Will there be problems
to overcome in such a realignment?
Of course, but with everyone
pulling together, immense benefits to
the community will accrue as a stronger
arts facility begins to take shape in
that old Ohio Street Art Deco white elephant
and Shawnee is revitalized.
Additional projects will be worked on
at the high school also. Any grad who
wants to put his name on a room or facility
is encouraged to contact the superintendent
who would be happy to explain
how many zeros are needed and
why.
Wisdom dictates this action now to save
the district dollars in the future without
compromising quality education.
The timeline to accomplish all this is
to have it fully implemented by the fall
of 2008. That seems to be cutting it
close, but after all, the high school’s
first floor was gutted, rebuilt, and had
students back in place all within 90
days over this past summer. Someone
ought to be getting good at this by now!
We’ll keep you posted.
A Newsletter of the Huron High
School Alumni Association published
quarterly in Huron, Ohio.
Mailing Address:
710 Cleveland Road West
Huron OH 44839
Telephone: 419-433-3171
Huron_Alumni@Huron-City. K12.OH.US