“The School Board is interested in building a 5 year plan in support of both school facilities and programming with help from our the community”, began John Kronour, Superintendant of Tipp City Schools stated this evening at the school funding town hall meeting called by the school in the Broadway Gymnasium.
John started off his presentation (available on http://tippcityschools.com ) by providing a brief history of the available school facilities, many of them dating back to the early 60’s. (and of course Tipp Central, the oldest building constructed back in 1916) The presentation slides included photos of degrading plumbing, lack of proper HVAC, electrical issues, structural decay and asbestos tiles and pipe tape.
Dr. Kronour shared many of the complexities and challenges for his educators these days when technology is such an important part of the curriculum.
- Buildings constructed 60 years ago did not take into account the districts future electrical needs. Many of the buildings have very inadequate electricity availability some classrooms with less than two outlets pose a challenge.
- Educating children in the future will include many more computers, laptops as well as portable digital devices like the iPod Touch.
- All day kindergarten, mandated by the State of Ohio will require 5 new rooms to be acquired or built.
“We have asked for your input to help determine whether we renovate our existing buildings, or build new” stated Kronour.
Athletic facilities review
The school’s presentation demonstrated many photographic example of rusting stands that are unsafe, our smallish and rusting concessions and press box as well as the cracked tennis courts.
The voters of Tipp City approved monies to provide PI dollars = Permanent improvement dollars which is defined as anything that the school buys that lasts 5 years or more.
“We want your help, and want to hear your input” stated Kronour “there is no current plan that is why we have you here, for input.”
Community Services
Kathy Taylor, Director of Tipp Monroe Community Services stated that Community Services uses the schools facilities w/o a fee, classrooms, labs and gyms supporting over 65 Tipp City youth athletic teams. Kronour added that he is not averse to considering plans that would include cooperative building and renovation plans that support Community Services and even the Tipp City Library.
One of the residents asked whether there were any “green changes” that the school was looking at doing. Dr. Kronour replied that the school district has already engaged Greg Smith, owner of Energy Optimizers here in our downtown and have already replaced lighting in the LT Ball and Middle School gyms. These lighting changes had a 1.5 year payback on the initial investment. The new high efficient lighting also provides for a much brighter gymnasium.
Near the end of the meeting, Dr. Kronour requested that attendees break out into smaller groups to discuss particular options and concerns. There was a genuine sense of interest and concern by the school staff and leadership that they were serious about making sure that the citizens of Tipp were being best served by their spending plan over the next 5 years. Interested parents and residents can contact Dr. Kronour if they would like to join in subcommittee discussions about school spending.
