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Open houses at Celina High School will be from noon-2 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 8.
CELINA - School officials will hold a pair of open houses at Celina High School to give the public one last chance to stroll down memory lane before the facility comes crashing down in early 2027.
The open houses are set for noon-2 p.m. Sunday and Nov. 8, according to Superintendent Brooke Gessler.
"Given community feedback … it's really an opportunity to afford community members who have an interest in maybe walking through the halls and visiting different classrooms, to reminisce and to have that nostalgia before the building is no longer," Gessler told The Daily Standard.
Built in 1964, Celina High School has served the community well, Gessler said.
"I do think that it has adapted the best that it can to the needs of the community and the needs of our students and our staff," Gessler said, pointing to the portion of building dedicated for Tri Star Career Compact before the new Tri Star facility on State Route 703 opened in 2019. "I'd like to say it's had a really good run."
Located adjacent to Celina High School, the new grades 7-12 building is coming along nicely.
"It's making great progress, and we hope to be able to have what we refer to as temporary occupancy where we can start moving some of our bigger equipment over for our classrooms in December, and then once we are able to … planned transitional walkthroughs for students and staff in December and then definitely in January ahead of our January 25 start date in our new building for all students and staff," Gessler said.
The new grades 7-12 building is nearing completion. The district will finish the transition from the old school to the new facility Jan. 19-22, 2027.
School board members in May voted 3-2 to move students to the new grades 7-12 building midway through the 2026-27 school year rather than at the beginning of the 2027-28 school year.
"We have taken steps to prepare (staff) as far as just the physical move for the packing," Gessler said. "Do I think that we will have additional opportunities to support and transition? Yes I do."
The district will eventually host open houses at the new grades 7-12 building.
"Our first priority is to get our students and staff settled," Gessler stressed. "We are planning a ribbon cutting and that will be this spring and that will be announced at a later date as well. There will be plenty of opportunities for scheduled open houses just like we conducted at Celina Elementary School. And so we will also plan for those to get our community in there, but our goal is to be able to host some of our basketball games in there this winter. So that'll be a great opportunity to get our community in the doors as well."
Once they do get a glimpse of the inside of the new grades 7-12 building, the community should be very pleased, Gessler noted
"It's beautiful, it is - and it's not even complete," she said. "And I can say, hands down without a doubt, it is a beautiful space, every aspect of it."
Gessler said the Celina High School will likely be razed in February or March.
"There will be some last remaining spaces that will need to be abated," she said. "As soon as they can get the desks and the chairs and all the old materials that are in there that are no longer needed, as soon as that is cleared, then the demolition will begin."
In the meantime, school officials continue to work on master facilities plans for the district's athletic facilities.
Board members in March 2025 voted to spare the life of the iconic but outdated Fieldhouse to make use of its locker rooms and other amenities, yet emphasized that high school basketball games will be played in a new gymnasium once the grades 7-12 school building is completed.
However, at a work session Aug. 4, board members learned from Matt Hibner, Garmann Miller's director of architecture, that the total potential project scope of items constituting the master plan - including new track and field facility, new football stadium at the track, renovations to the high school Tri Star building, and more - are roughly $20.89 million.
They are now open to the possibility of selling the education complex/Fieldhouse, football field and a sliver of land on College Avenue in order to bring overall master plan costs down.
The school has a remaining locally funded initiative (LFI)/locally funded other (LFO) budget of $8.65 million. On top of that, they have a total of $4.01 million in other potential future funding opportunities, including local share of interest to be returned and funds from the Jerry Andrew Fund in care of the Mercer County Civic Foundation.
A new track and field facility estimated at $4.2 million and a new football stadium at the track and field facility estimated at $3.347 million are likely to be pursued, based on past school board conversations, but much of the rest of the master facilities plan is still up in the air due to the high cost and limited budget.
"We have had multiple meetings that Garmann Miller has had with the appropriate staff members to help make those decisions to bring costs down for our future athletic facilities," Gessler said. "Our first priority is to get moving on our track and on our field and also with our Tri Star space because that is going to be buttoned up, and so we want to be able to make use of that as best we can until we can raise enough money to truly finish the space as we kind of envision it to become.
"Once value engineering has been done with that phase … then the next phase is that we will revisit the costs for our middle school, where we will move our administrative offices."
Gessler said the Bulldog Athletic Capital Campaign Committee is actively engaging the community.
"They are working to send out letters and have conversations with area businesses and donors in order to share what the vision is in hopes that we get some donations," she said.
