New Bremen hears school project plans

NEW BREMEN - Plans for a new or renovated elementary school building are proceeding, board members learned Wednesday evening.

Architecture and engineering firm Garmann-Miller & Associates, Minster, presented three rough sketches of possible building locations to board members. Firm co-founder Bradley Garmann said the plans were strictly conceptual and specifics such as cost and size have yet to be finalized.

"We're looking at it from 30,000 feet right now," he said.

The firm's first option would keep most of the existing elementary school and renovate the structure. Renovation, though, would not be fully co-funded by the state, Garmann and senior planner Wayne Colman said.

The Ohio School Facilities Commission helps fund building construction but demands, among other things, a program of requirements. The program of requirements assesses how much classroom space a school needs based on student population. Under state specifications, the elementary school population warrants a 60,000- to 70,000-square-foot building. The existing building is 115,000 square feet.

For renovations, the OSFC will co-fund only renovations to the square footage outlined in the requirements, Colman explained. Renovations to any space beyond that amount would be locally funded.

"It's true that it's cheaper to renovate than it is to build new. Well, when you're dealing with larger spaces than what you would build new, the differential starts to change," Colman said. "It's normally true that you can renovate for less money than you can build new. But when you tie in your local share, the state is saying 'you're going to pay 100 percent of additional square footage that we won't co-fund.' "

The local share of renovating versus building new would end up being very close, he added.

Another issue with renovations is the newer parts are wrapped around the older parts, Garmann said.

"So we're looking at that now to see if that even makes sense, and I say that both fiscally and functionally," he said.

The second option was building a new, two-story structure near the existing school. The new building would be constructed on the baseball fields north of the elementary school. The old school would then be demolished and turned into fields, which the state would co-fund, Colman said.

The third plan would construct a new elementary building to southeast of the high school. The firm included a possible middle school building connecting the two but noted the project would be locally funded.

The current elementary building would then be demolished. A benefit would be one less building to maintain, Garmann said.

The firm will have more detailed plans and a better idea of potential costs at the March 16 board meeting, the Garmann-Miller representatives said.

"What we start out with is kind of the utopia - if you had K-12, exactly what you feel you need, for the way you teach the students, how many spaces, how many classrooms would you need?" architect Mandy Niekamp said. "We have that now and now we need to look at, 'OK, maybe we should back off on some things a little bit, where could we combine some spaces or repurpose things.' So that's what we'll be looking at more."

Board members also,

• authorized administrators to seek bids for repair work to the Exterior Insulation and Finish System and flashing on the roof around the high school gymnasium. Improper construction when the roof was installed has led to leaks, treasurer Deb Meyer said. The cost is estimated to exceed $60,000 and will be paid through the replacement fund.

• learned from superintendent Andrea Townsend a public hearing regarding federal IDEA funds for handicapped children will be at 7 p.m. at the March 16 meeting.

• learned from elementary school principal Diane Kramer 91 percent of third-graders met the requirements of the third-grade reading guarantee. Townsend later shared that 12th-graders had a 100 percent passage rate on the Ohio Graduation Test.

• learned from athletic director Gary Jones that track coach Sue Burnell received the 2015 Fred Dafler Ohio Career Coach of the Year Award. The board congratulated Burnell on her achievement.

• approved the following supplemental contracts for the 2015-2016 school year: Chad Williams, assistant high school track; Julie Ferguson, assistant high school track; Gary Moeder, assistant junior varsity softball; Mike Gast, junior varsity baseball; Logan O'Neill, freshman baseball; Anthony Moeder, freshman softball; Nate Niekamp, junior high track; Lindsay Roiberg, junior high track; Ben Chaney, assistant junior high track; Renee Brotski, assistant junior high track; Gary Jones, junior high and high school track facility coordinator; and Chad Wells, high school baseball and softball facilities coordinator.

• approved a supplemental contract for the 2016-2017 school year for Diana Kramer, varsity volleyball.

• recognized the following volunteers for the 2015-2016 school year: Ron Tenkman, baseball; Chris Keller, baseball; Kris Kuck, track; Joe Huwer, track; and Emily Moeder, softball.