Margaretta Schools breaks ground on new facility

CASTALIA — A new era for Margaretta Schools has begun. On Monday, district administrators, board members and construction project officials participated in a groundbreaking ceremony in front of more than 150 people — many wearing Margaretta green and white — at the district's future building site for preschool through high school students. It's the first time in more than 50 years that Margaretta Schools will construct a new building, which is expected to open within the next two years. In 1968, Margaretta Schools bought about 100 acres of land, so a new facility could someday be constructed along Ohio 101 near the district's current bus garage. "Today is someday," Margaretta Schools superintendent Ed Kurt said Monday. With its aging school facilities, Margaretta officials started to gather input from the public for a possible construction project a few years ago. Recent assessments of current district buildings showed the middle school/high school facility isn't able to be effectively renovated due to its age. The worst portions were built in 1913, 1922 and 1953. "We have done a good job of caring for these facilities, and they have served us well in outliving the expectations of a school building," Kurt said. "The need for handicapped accessibility, better technology, modern 21st century teaching and learning and better safety measures for our children will be addressed through this project. "This community is the school, and the school is the community," Kurt said. "We are connected, and the school district and community are deserving of a state-of-the-art education facility. We are very excited to get this project underway." Design details The building, at the 93-acre Ohio 101 site near the bus garage, would take up more than 169,000 square feet. The building would: • Feature two stories in the main building; The left wing of the building's first floor would house preschool through first-grade students with middle school classes in the right wing. The second floor would have classrooms for grades 2-5 and high school in separate wings. • Contain locker rooms, two gyms, music and FFA rooms behind the main academic portion of the building; A gym for high school would have seating for 1,500 people with an auxiliary gym for elementary and middle school students nearby. • Offer a large outdoor courtyard that could be used for outdoor dining, student activities and other possibilities Perkins Schools board member Ted Kastor, owner of Kastor Construction, a consulting business, will be the liaison between Margaretta Schools and Mosser Construction of Fremont, who will build the schools, and Fanning Howey architects. In this role, Kastor will monitor the construction schedule in addition to the project's progress and budget, among other duties. Costs involved The project's total cost, including the construction of the new building and partial demolition/abatement of current elementary and middle/high schools, is about $49 million. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, a state agency, will pay for 38% of the project. For the preschool-through-high school building, that equals about $15 million. That state funding percentage, however, is expected to go down once Margaretta Schools receives more money from the Nexus pipeline project, treasurer Diane Keegan previously told the Register. When the school district does receive funding from the pipeline project, Margaretta officials said they want to allocate 25% to the district's general fund, 25% to cash reserves and 50% to facilities funding. Keegan said the reason why Margaretta Schools is moving forward with project plans when the funding isn't immediately available is so the district didn't to lose the state commission's 38% state payment of the project, the highest given to Margaretta Schools. "It was really important for us to lock this in and get it approved and get ourselves in line with the OFCC," she said. Since Margaretta's project was approved for the state commission's funding, the district has to show progress with the project, like hiring a construction manager, designing the building, among other tasks. The Nexus pipeline project was originally supposed to pay $29 million within the first five years to Margaretta Schools. Current construction timeline from Mosser Construction • Next week: site work to prepare the land for construction will begin • September/October: foundation work begins • October: building construction begins • Spring 2023: structural steel and roofing installation • 2023: masonry, interior work occurs • Anticipated construction finish slated for 2024 Ceremony speakers A number of officials gave speeches at Monday evening's groundbreaking. Here's what some said: Margaretta board president Brian Sutorius: I've had the honor of serving on the school board for six years with some great community members who have helped lay the groundwork for us to be here today. The dream of breaking ground for a new school to serve this great district is finally upon us. The support of this community and its feedback has made all the hurdles and roadblocks we have endured much easier to conquer. I'm sure we'll have a few more bumps along the way, but with a great deal of confidence, I have in the team we surround ourselves with to build this new facility. The site I stand on today has always felt like a special place to me since I was in high school in the mid-1980s. The knowledge I took away from this field while working in it when I was in FFA helped me build the foundation of my career. Now, today, we break ground to build another foundation that we can pass on to our children, grandchildren and future generations to come. As we turn soil today to start building our new facility, I look forward to seeing our vision become a reality. Our work isn't done here. We will continue to improve and build on this great school district. I sincerely thank everyone who has helped this dream become a reality. Margaretta treasurer Diane Keegan: We've been waiting for this for a very long time. Not only is this district doing great things in the classroom with our literacy initiative to advance our students' reading comprehension and basic knowledge through the evidence-based science of reading study, we are also getting a great opportunity to build our students and employees a new, 21st century teaching and learning-focused building. This is to advance the ease in which our children learn in a safe, handicapped-accessible and learning-focused building. The design of this building has been a great collaboration of ideas of our community forum groups made up of employees, parents and community members. Given this whole project has hinged on the premise it'll be funded by Nexus pipeline incremental tax revenue, we have been keeping a close eye on Nexus' appeal process and have been working hand in hand with county authorities and experts on the update of this process. On June 23, we received great news that a Nexus settlement was reached. The good news is that based on preliminary communications we've received on the settlement percentage, it will support the building of the new school facility. The other important news the community needs to be aware of about the settlement is that this settlement locks in the initial market value, which is tied to the cost of constructing the pipeline. This is the lion's share of money we'll receive with all of our Nexus payments going forward. The only thing that Nexus will be able to appeal after the finalization of the initial pipeline construction valuation settlement is any new incremental improvements that are made over the years. This is a huge win in the settlement with getting that locked in and never allowing appeals to happen. We have a few more hurdles to be completed to lock in the absolute final numbers. Fourteen Ohio counties are involved with Nexus that have the right to appeal the settlement during a 60-day window from June 23. We're anticipating that we won't receive the last two years of underpayment tax amounts plus interest until, at latest, October or November. But we're not sitting still until the fall. We're able to continue to move forward and begin this financing process of credit rating and bond issue reviews and starting the underwriting process, which will lock in our interest rates for the new facility loans. We can also continue forward with the site utility preparation work with the amount we've already set aside for Nexus' previous two and a half years of tax payments. As a proud Margaretta graduate in a large, multi-generational family of graduates, it is truly a great day for this community. Brian Geffe, Mosser Construction president and CEO: This is an awesome gathering of people showing how important this school is to our community. As a company located 20 miles away, some of our past and present workforce comes from this school district. We're honored to be a part of this building construction. Now we're getting to the exciting part of turning all these plans into a reality for the people of Castalia and this region. Reach reporter Caitlin Nearhood at nearhood@sanduskyregister.com and follow her on Twitter @CaitlinNearhood - Appreciate news from your community? Click here to subscribe to the Register.