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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
It’s $15 million for Wilbur Wright and Julienne
(Buses lined up at Wilbur Wright Middle School in a DDN file photo.)
The extra cost to renovation two schools that neighborhood groups are trying to save are high enough that they could force the school district to build one fewer school, district officials said.
The combined cost for renovating Wilbur Wright Middle School and the former Julienne High School buildings is about $15 million, according to a new estimate based on renovation plans drawn up by the district.
“It would amount to another school,” school board President Yvonne Isaacs said. “It would cost us taking a school from somewhere else. That would not be fair or equitable.”
The extra cost to renovation two schools that neighborhood groups are trying to save are high enough that they could force the school district to build one fewer school, school officials said.
The combined cost for renovating Wilbur Wright Middle School and the former Julienne High School buildings is about $15 million, according to a new estimate based on renovation plans drawn up by the district.
“It would amount to another school,” school board President Yvonne Isaacs said. “It would cost us taking a school from somewhere else. That would not be fair or equitable.”
The estimate for rehabilitating Wilbur Wright is $18.3 million with the district’s additional costs at $8.8 million. But district construction chief John Carr said that number may be low. He asked the district’s construction manager to do an estimate also that came in at $21.9 million for the rehab project.
“The Ohio School Facilities Commission doesn’t give us enough money,” Carr said. “What the project actually costs per square foot for renovation — we can’t do it for that.”
For Julienne, a detailed estimate shows the district’s additional costs at $6.3 million, even high than the $4 million difference between the projected $17.3 million project cost and the price for a typical elementary school because the state will match fewer dollars. The district is currently constructing elementary schools for about $13.5 million.
The board is willing to entertain offers or ideas for funding the difference, Isaacs said. Dan Andriacco, spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati, said the possibility of the church offering financial help to save Julienne was “unlikely.”
Some supporters of saving Julienne have argued that the school is historic because the martyred Sister Dorothy Stang attended the school and may have received her calling to the church there. She is being considered for sainthood.
“Nobody has made a formal proposal to the archdiocese,” Andriacco said. “We have our own financial needs to look at. Anytime we are approached to support anything it has to be looked at in that broader context.”
Bonnie Baker, spokeswoman for the Mathile Family Foundation, which has awarded grants to Catholic schools in the past, said the foundation would consider making grants to groups proposing projects that fit its mission to create opportunities for children or families and need.
Supporters of renovation said they want to learn more about the district’s estimates.
“I really question the figures at this point,” said Marc Suda, who is president of a Five Oaks neighborhood group that has fought to save Julienne. “I don’t know if they are comparing apples to apples with the renovation.”
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