Members of the school board at Karns City Area School District already voted to close Sugarcreek Elementary School upon the completion of an expansion project at Chicora Elementary, but they have to go through that process one more time.

Eric Ritzert, superintendent of the district, said because the project at Chicora Elementary will take longer than originally anticipated, the school board has to vote on a new closing date. This means the board will have to first host a public meeting regarding the school’s closing, and can vote on its closing date 90 days after that.

Ritzert addressed this at a Monday, Oct. 9 work session of the Karns City school board.

“We expect Chicora construction to be completed by late summer of 2024,” Ritzert said. “Our intention would be to close Sugarcreek June 30, 2024, and those students and staff would assimilate into Chicora next fall.”

Construction updates were on the agenda for Monday’s work session, including a possible renovation project at Karns City Area Jr./Sr. High School.

According to Ritzert, the school hasn’t had a major upgrade since it had an addition built in 1995. Over the years, parts of the building have come to need updates, and Ritzert said he would like to plan for a few years in the future.

“There is a lot of needs, roof sections, mechanical sections, upgrades to signs, labs,” he said. “The thinking was to develop a plan, so here in the future, sooner versus later, interest rates would subside again, and we can look at what is affordable and update that building.”

Ritzert said it could be a few years before any work begins at the school, but he would like to start looking into potential drawings soon.

“In January, I'll revisit that topic and seek permission to start the process of engaging staff and architectural firms,” he said.

The school board accepted Monday a payment of about $7,800 through a settlement with electronic cigarette company Juul, after the district joined a class-action lawsuit that reached a settlement in December. The amount of each payment prescribed to a school district is based on a formula using the number of students in a district.

Ritzert said the district has invested in vapor detectors to discourage students from bringing devices to school, because high school students have been caught with vaping devices recently.

“Similar to the days in which cigarettes were the go-to, vapes have replaced that,” he said. “We have invested in the purchase of vape detectors and different things. These sensors can detect if there is a problem with noise, vapes, a host of things.”

Money a school district receives from the settlement has to be allocated to anti-vaping initiatives, and Ritzert said the district has already invested in education on the subject.

“One of the bigger things we've got to focus on is educate students on what I would say are the dangers of vaping,” Ritzert said. “Our role is to educate people so they are making good decisions.”