Groveport Messenger - March 20th, 2022

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March 20, 2022 - GROVEPORT MESSENGER - PAGE 11
Groveport Madison begins to plan for future of its schools
By Rick Palsgrove
Groveport Editor
The Groveport Madison Board of
Education approved contracting with SHP
Architects for facility planning regarding
the potential renovation, expansion, or
replacement of the district’s existing elementary
and middle schools.
According to the contract, SHP
Architects will: review and update assessments
of existing schools in the district;
assist with the analysis of enrollment projections;
facilitate advisory team meetings;
research existing site information on properties
owned by the district as well as
potential new building sites; facilitate the
development of the district’s Master
Facilities Plan and locally funded facility
plan options; and engage with the community
to share facility and site conditions,
needs and opportunities; participate in formulating
an educational vision to identify
where the district wants to be relative to
trends in education; how the district might
respond to the Ohio Department of
Education’s Strategic Plan for Learning;
identify how new or renovated learning
spaces can support the district; and identify
Master Facilities Plan preferences all at
a cost of $77,000.
The board already approved contracting
with Cropper GIS for a demographic and
capacity/utilization study of the district at a
cost of $35,500. That work is now underway.
The board also voted to not accept funding
this year from the Ohio Facilities
Construction Commission.
“This will allow us to have time for proper
facility planning and community
engagement,” said Groveport Madison
Superintendent Garilee Ogden.
The reason for postponing acceptance of
OFCC money is that, if the district accepted
the funding now, it would need to have
its Master Facilities Plan completed by
mid-May, which does not give the district
sufficient time to complete its planning,
research, and community engagement.
Ogden previously noted such a short
amount of time does not allow time to figure
out building attendance boundary
realignment and prepare a campaign for
three potential election cycles to try and
pass a bond issue. She added Groveport
Madison is at the top of the OFCC’s list for
segmented projects “so it is likely that they
will come to us next January again with
funding even if we say ‘no’ right now.”
Timeline
Now that the SHP Architects contract is
approved, facility analysis, community
engagement, and educational visioning
begins. After that, discussions about facilities
planning, what the new schools could
look like, where buildings would be, what
the community wants, building grade configurations,
and building attendance
boundaries can take place as well as
informing the community about the Master
Facilities Plan. (The building attendance
boundaries do not refer to the entire district’s
actual boundary. It refers to the
attendance boundaries within the district
for each individual school building regarding
which school building students attend
based on where they reside.)
District officials indicated a completed
Master Facilities Plan and a board resolution
for the OFCC would be needed by
April 2023 in order to receive funding
approval from the OFCC.
A bond issue for new buildings could
appear on the November 2023, May 2024,
or August 2024 ballot.
Ogden noted the bond issue must pass
by August 2024 or else the district would
have to reapply for OFCC funding.
She also said the district’s five year
renewal general operating levy is tentatively
scheduled for the November 2024
ballot as that is latest date it can be
approved for the district to start collecting
money in 2025.
Buildings’ capacity and enrollments
As of October 2021, the district had
6,271 students. In comparison, enrollment
was 5,569 in 2015-16.
Warner said overcrowding is the central
issue facing the district, but other factors
to be considered in the facilities planning
process include the age, condition, efficiency,
adaptability, and cost to maintain the
existing elementary and middle schools.
To deal with student overcrowding, the
district has 24 modular classrooms in use,
including a single quad-classroom unit at
Groveport Elementary, two double-classroom
units at Asbury Elementary and
Dunloe Elementary, and six double-classroom
units at Sedalia Elementary.
Here are the capacity and enrollments
(as of December 2021) for Groveport
Madison’s elementary and middle schools
(a new 240,000 square foot, 1,500 student
high school opened in 2018):
•Asbury Elementary — Built in 1963
with additions in 1968 and 1969.
Enrollment, 476. Functional capacity, 425.
•Dunloe Elementary — Built in 1967
with additions in 1968 and 1969.
Enrollment, 448. Functional capacity, 425.
•Glendening Elementary — Built in
1968 with addition in 1974. Enrollment,
455. Functional capacity, 425.
•Groveport Elementary — Built in 1923.
Enrollment, 417. Functional capacity, 425.
Placed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 2009.
•Madison Elementary — Built in 1967
with additions in 1968 and 1969.
Enrollment, 354. Functional capacity, 425.
•Sedalia Elementary — Built in 1969
with addition in 1974. Enrollment, 562.
Functional capacity, 446.
•Middle School North — Built in 1975.
Enrollment, 495. Functional capacity, 425.
•Middle School South — Built in 1975.
Enrollment, 466. Functional capacity, 425.
•Middle School Central — Built in stages
as a high school between 1952-56.
Our Family Caring For Yours
Enrollment, 448. Functional capacity, 425.
Placed on the National Register of Historic
Places in 2009.
Since December, Groveport Madison
Communications Director Jeff Warner said
now every building in the district, except
for Madison Elementary, is over capacity.
(Functional capacity is 85 percent of original
design capacity and reflects modern
requirements for classroom space and programming.
Source: Groveport Madison
Schools.)
Dr. Sacheen Garrison
5055 S. Hamilton Road
Groveport, OH 43125 614-836-0500
www.groveportsmiles.com