Troy has decided part of new elementary schools plan: How to split up the students

“We would have all students in each grade in one building,” board President Doug Trostle said as the board discussed the bond issue and a recently formed levy task force.

The district now has nine buildings: six elementary buildings, a sixth-grade building, a junior high and high school. While exploring options earlier this year, the board discussed two elementary buildings housing prekindergarten through grade 6 in each building. The buildings would have the younger children in one section and the older students in the other under that scenario.

A preference for the scenario of younger students in one building and older ones in the other was made clear during the initial meeting of the levy task force last weesk, according to comments during Monday’s meeting.

Board member Joyce Reives said it was “nice” to be able to tell district residents of the prekindergarten through grade 2 and third through six grade building configurations but added more specifics cannot be announced until funding is approved by voters.

“The community is clamoring for information, but we have to move along at the pace we can go,” Reives said.

That’s because the district is working with the Ohio School Facilities Commission on a building project that requires the district to follow a OSFC design process, Superintendent Eric Herman said. The district funding plan includes 33 percent state funding.

“They see it as a cooperative project between them and us. It is not just our project,” Herman said.

The board in August approved purchase, if the bond issues passes, of 58.67 acres of land off Ohio 55 and Nashville Road just west of the city limits in Concord Twp. for $733,375. The district would seek to annex the land to the city.

The district is asking voters to approve a 4.61-mill, 30-year bond issue. The estimated cost of the construction project is $63.3 million, with a local share of $47.9 million. The current estimates show the elementary building local costs at $42.4 million. The balance would be for updates at the high school including air conditioning in the library and cafeteria, replacement boilers, increased electrical service and air conditioning in individual rooms.

The board Monday also heard briefly about the recently formed levy campaign task force that will be chaired by local businessmen Ron Musilli and Brock Heath.

Information on the levy is available on the schools' web site at under The Future of Learning section.