Share your thoughts on the initial draft options for Hastings, Jones and Burbank!

Since the fall of 2024, the Upper Arlington community has been working together to explore the best path forward for our aging middle schools and Burbank Early Childhood School.

Nearly a decade ago, during the first phase of our facilities master planning process, we focused on building a new high school and five new or renovated elementary schools. At that time, we made the decision to hold off on the needed work at Hastings, Jones and Burbank until a future phase — one that we are fully engaged in today.

So far, in phase two, building teams made up of about 100 community and staff volunteers have been carefully examining each building — its challenges, its possibilities and the best ways to serve our students now and in the future. Their work has been informed by professional assessments of both the physical condition and the educational needs of these spaces.

Now, we need your input. 

The teams have worked with our team of professional architects to develop initial draft options, and your voice is essential. These options fall into three categories:

• The repair options would maintain or update infrastructure based on the findings of the physical assessments to bring the building up to working order
• The renovate options would change the existing structure, mostly the interior of the building, to address the needs identified in the physical facility assessments PLUS some or all of the needs identified in the educational adequacy assessment. That may include things such as right-sizing classrooms, improving daylight, and addressing issues with the overall functionality of the building.
• The rebuild options would construct a new structure to fully meet the modern physical and educational needs. 

No decisions have been made yet — which is why we need to hear from you. The feedback gathered in our online community survey will be critical in refining these options before the next round of community engagement sessions in May.

You can visit www.uaschools.org/facilities to take the survey through Sunday, March 9. I strongly encourage you to take a few moments to share your thoughts on these draft options. Your voice matters, and together, we can create a vision for the future of our schools — one that truly reflects the needs and values of our community.