Major renovations could soon be coming to the Karns City School District.
Earlier this week, administrators laid out a preliminary plan that would see the closure of Sugarcreek Elementary School, and major renovations to Chicora Elementary and the High School.
Superintendent Dr. Eric Ritzert explains one of the changes planned for Chicora.
“What we would be looking to do is to have a separate cafe-torium, and so in the evenings and at other points in the day that space could be utilized differently for the community,” Ritzert said. “The gym would then be available during the day for all health and physical education classes.”
Ritzert says that a ‘cafe-torium’ is a multi-purpose room that can serve as the cafeteria and auditorium. He also added that currently the gym serves as the cafeteria, and the new plan would change that. He also said that having a separate auditorium-type area, could give the district additional space during the school year becaue the Chicora Elementary gym is where a majority of junior high basketball games are played.
He also said more classrooms would be built at the school, along with mechanical system updates.
Meanwhile, the high school would be looking at a comprehensive renovation.
Ritzert said none of the plans have been approved by the school board yet, and the preliminary plan is posted on the district’s website.
“The details take some time to develop and that would be done through the input of community comments,” Ritzert said. “By no means is this a take-it-or-leave-it. It’s a recommendation and hopefully people who wish to comment do that, so we can factor in their opinions.”
If the timeline goes according to plan, construction could start as soon as summer 2021. He said the current estimate for the project is $50 million, but the district would like to get that number closer to $40 million. However, Ritzert added that it’s been difficult for construction companies to provide costs because of the pandemic.
