New $21M school being built on Roosevelt High site

Elected city members, including City of Dayton mayor Rhine McLin, take their opportunity to break ground for the new Dayton Boys Prep Academy, which is now housed in the former McNeary Elementary School on Hoover Ave., Monday April 13 on 2013 West Third St in Dayton. Dayton Boys Prep Academy and City of Dayton Rec Plex will be built at the location of Roosevelt High School.

Teesha McClam/Dayton Daily News Elected city members, including City of Dayton mayor Rhine McLin, take their opportunity to break ground for the new Dayton Boys Prep Academy, which is now housed in the former McNeary Elementary School on Hoover Ave., Monday April 13 on 2013 West Third St in Dayton. Dayton Boys Prep Academy and City of Dayton Rec Plex will be built at the location of Roosevelt High School.

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Student Council vice president Savon Cohen and treasurer Tykell Brooks, who attend Dayton Boys Prep Academy, which is housed in the former McNeary Elementary School on Hoover Ave., gives a smile before breaking ground for their new school, where Roosevelt High School stood, Monday April 13 on 2013 West Third St in Dayton.

Teesha McClam/Dayton Daily News Student Council vice president Savon Cohen and treasurer Tykell Brooks, who attend Dayton Boys Prep Academy, which is housed in the former McNeary Elementary School on Hoover Ave., gives a smile before breaking ground for their new school, where Roosevelt High School stood, Monday April 13 on 2013 West Third St in Dayton.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Anthony Gottschlich, Staff Writer Updated 1:42 AM Tuesday, April 14, 2009

DAYTON — On a cold, gray day more befitting a funeral than a celebration, Dayton city and school leaders stood by the barren ground of the former Roosevelt High School Monday to launch a $21 million new beginning for the West Third Street site.

“This is another wonderful spring day in Dayton, nice and warm,” Mayor Rhine McLin began, half in jest, during a groundbreaking April 13 for the Dayton Boys Preparatory Academy and City of Dayton Rec Plex. “If you think it’s cold, change your attitude.”

Plans for the 13-acre parcel call for a 73,000-square-foot school on three floors connected by a common wall to a 45,000-square-foot recreation complex. Combined, the complex at 2013 W. Third St. will house conventional gymnasiums, lap and therapeutic pools, a family interactive play area and multipurpose rooms for after-school programming and community uses.

Officials also said the complex will serve as a “new anchor” for West Third Street development.

Roosevelt grad Charlene Hairston Wortham welcomed the plans Monday, but with mixed emotions.

“I hate to ride by and see (Roosevelt) not here; it’s a piece of me,” said Wortham, Class of ‘62. “But it’s a new beginning and it’ll be a bigger and better thing here now for the kids that are coming.”

The city’s picking up $7.2 million of the cost; the school district the rest as part of its district-wide new school construction project. Completion is slated for August 2010.

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