The Upper Arlington community came together over the course of two and a half years to craft a long-term, financially sensible master plan for our aging schools.
Our school buildings were, on average, more than 60 years old, and the cost to repair and maintain them was continuing to rise. This community-centered process was launched in 2015 in an effort to control those costs and prevent classroom funds from being diverted to cover facilities needs.
Throughout the 2015-2017 facilities master planning process, thousands of residents shared their thoughts on the best path forward for our aging schools by volunteering on a building team, taking an online survey, attending a community meeting or hosting or attending one of the 100 small-group coffee chats conducted by the superintendent and the chief operating officer.
The result of this community feedback was the master plan, finalized by the Board of Education in May 2017.
The master plan outlined rebuilding the high school, renovating or rebuilding the five elementary schools and repairing the middle schools and Burbank Early Childhood School. It also outlined a two-phase implementation, with the first phase consisting of work at the high school and the elementary schools as well as addressing drainage issues and installing a turf field and baseball/softball diamonds on district-owned property behind Tremont Elementary School. The master plan also called for the largest private fundraising effort in the history of the district to offset the cost to homeowners. In addition, the master plan called for looking into the possibility of selling the district’s central office and using those funds toward relocation, potentially to the high school.