The Ohio School Facilities Commission has reached the halfway point of its mission to upgrade school buildings throughout the state at a cost of more than $10 billion, but faces a future in which its source of funding is no longer clear.

The commission announced its most recent project approvals last month, including renovations for the Dayton Regional STEM School and second phase of Butler County’s Ross Local School District plan. They bring the commission-involved work in the seven-county area around Dayton to about $2.15 billion.

Founded in 1997 to address antiquated rural and urban school buildings throughout the state, the commission estimated it could complete its work by 2012. That goal has been missed because of increases in construction costs, the country’s poor economic climate and some districts’ struggles with funding their portions of the projects, said Richard Hickman, executive director of the OSFC.

The commission’s latest projection, assuming it can fund 25 projects per year, would bring its work to completion by 2025, by which time it hopes to serve 613 school districts and 49 joint vocational schools, Hickman said.

“I think it’s a program that’s leading the nation in terms of what we’re doing help rebound the school districts,” Hickman said. “We’re including technology and building efficiently to make sure the buildings are equipped for education of the future.”

For some districts, the work has been more than decade in the making. The Ross Local School District started movement on a new high school in 2000, recognizing coming growth. Last month, the OSFC announced the second phase of the district’s construction and renovation that will work on all four of the district’s buildings when complete.

Greg Young, the Ross superintendent, said new buildings motivate students.

“I think you could sense the uplifting of the students’ spirits when they were able to have a building that was on par with anyone else,” Young said.

Financing projects

The commission in 2007 received more than $4.1 billion in funds from the sale of bonds backed by Ohio’s share of the annual lawsuit settlement payments with the country’s largest tobacco companies. The settlement, made in 1998 so states would stop suing tobacco companies to recover health care costs from tobacco-related illnesses, this year provided Ohio with $295 million.

The state sold $5.05 billion in bonds backed by the settlement funds. Of the $4.112 billion deposited to the commission in 2007, the Buckeye Tobacco Settlement Financing Authority listed $65,258 remaining by March, and those funds were totally exhausted by the start of July.

Facility Commission officials said the programs would have continued without the tobacco settlement bonds, but the billions of dollars allowed them to help many more districts in that period.

The OSFC receives funding on an annual basis, and it was approved for $675 million for the current year, Hickman said. That money will come from $425 million in bond sales back by Ohio’s general revenue fund and $250 million from license fees paid by seven racetracks for video lottery terminals, he said. It’s funding in future years will have to be determined.

The OSFC has included work on 124 buildings in the region.

“We considered it a big responsibility to make sure we were making the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Janet Baker, superintendent of Hamilton City Schools, which is nearing completion of its project estimated at $250 million. “We want a great outcome for the resources we’ve used.”

Remaining work

The Dayton Regional STEM School, whose Kettering building was once a Value City department store, has been approved for $4.27 million in OSFC funds to match $4.27 million of its own funds toward renovation of the site. It is the first of the state’s STEM schools to acquire OSFC funding.

The school is one of 27 schools or districts whose funding approval was announced in July, with the OSFC contributing $479 million of the $1.1 billion in the projects. The schools or districts must raise their share of the budget total within 13 months to receive the state funds.

“I think it shows the flexibility, because our needs are much different than many other (schools),” said Matt Grushon, a Wright State liaison to the STEM school who has worked closely with the OSFC. “We’re trying to create more of a campus environment from something that was not originally a school building.”

OSFC officials said they try to work closely with each district to meet their needs. Some administrators said standing commission policies can be hurdles in the projects if their needs are different, but there are avenues to change policies and meet needs.

“What I learned a long time ago … you tell me the rules and I’ll play the game,” said John Carr, the chief of construction for Dayton Public Schools during its 26-building project. “I knew when to fight my battles with them and when to go along with their design manual.”

Hickman said the commission will continue to advocate for appropriate funding in the future. School officials, including those who have overseen completed projects and those are have projects ongoing, said the state’s creation and continuation of the OSFC has helped Ohio rise in facility respectability while creating or updating buildings that can be used by the entire community.

“These are tremendous assets to the community,” said David Estrop, superintendent of Springfield City Schools, whose completed 16-building project included a total budget of $195.4 million. “We’ve really tried to open them up for as much community use as we possibly could, because these should be pride points for any area.

“They represent the status of the community, which makes this work very important for everyone.”