Karns City approves bids for new school
KARNS CITY — The Karns City Area School Board approved bids totaling $24.8 million for construction of Chicora Elementary School during its meeting Thursday night.
The entire project is expected to cost $30.1 million.
Bids approved were for general construction, architectural casework, food service equipment, HVAC construction, plumbing construction and electrical construction.
Superintendent Eric Ritzert said the project should start in late spring or early summer and will take two years to complete,.
"That’s the minimum timeline,” he said.
The new building will have the capacity for 775 students in grades kindergarten through six. It will be a renovation of the current Chicora Elementary School and combine those students with the ones from Sugarcreek Elementary School, leaving the district with one elementary school as opposed to two.
There are no current plans as to what to do with Sugarcreek once the project is completed. The district plans to use the soccer field at Sugarcreek until the new field at Chicora is completed, which will take a few years due to seeding.
Several parents and school board members expressed a desire to sell the building once it is no longer needed, though no plans can be made without board approval.
Ritzert mentioned that Sugarcreek will remain open for the next two school years, and students that attend can expect to transition to Chicora in late August 2025. The construction is expected to be completed in phases and planned out so that it doesn’t significantly interfere with the day-to-day operations of the school.
Part of the money being used to pay for the construction is from an approximately $21 million bond that the school district secured in April 2021. That bond was based on the estimated cost of the school at the time.
The project was initially put on hold in 2022 when bids were too costly for the district.
Alisha Henry, a representative from PNC Capital Markets, spoke at the meeting and said that the school district was smart to have secured the bond when they did.
“I can tell you now, looking back, what a wonderful idea that was to borrow that money during that COVID environment,” said Henry. “The interest rates today, had they borrowed today, would be 2 percentage points higher and the project would not be feasible.”
The new school will have several new safety features, including a new security area and vestibule that can help prevent intruders from entering. It’s organized so that the younger students will be located toward the front of the school and shared spaces such as the library and art room are in the middle, making access easy.
It will be 92,000 square feet with 54,000 square feet being occupied by existing structures. The softball field near the school will be changed into an all-purpose athletic field. The music room is set to be moved to help prevent any students from being distracted by the noise that the room can produce.
A new access road is part of the general construction bid and it’s plan is to separate the bus pick-up location from the parent pick-up location. A new cafeteria and kitchen will be located across from the gymnasium to separate those two faculties from the academic area. The reasoning for that is to be able to prevent access to classrooms while events are being held at the school after hours.
More information on the plan can be viewed on the school’s website.
