Residents Brainstorm Ideas, Share Priorities For CH-UH Schools Master Plan

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights City School District has hired companies to devise a master plan to renovate or replace all buildings in the district.

But officials wanted to hear from residents first before the architecture firms started drafting the overhaul.

The first CH-UH Facility Master Plan Community Meeting was Nov. 30 in the Social Room.

The slideshow above provides an overview of the forum that night, which included small group work, where residents wrote their priorities on paper for the district and firms to review.

At the October CH-UH School Board meeting, members approved two contracts to that will work together to create a master plan. Minneapolis-based , Fanning Howey of Dublin, OH, and local firm studioTECHNE will develop a plan and engage the community in the decision-making process.

Cleveland-based Regency Construction will review the plan that the group of companies comes up with and conduct a cost and constructability analysis to estimate approximately the amount of money the district will need to raise to complete the project.

The team of architects will receive $334,840, and the base fee for Regency Construction is $30,000, said Steve Shergalis, director of business services for the district, by email. The Regency payment will be adjusted based on the number of master plans the group analyzes, he said.

The district is paying the companies with money from the permanent improvement fund, Superintendent Douglas Heuer said at the October meeting.

"We were band-aiding the often outdated facilities we're working in right now, and accumulated $40 million in repairs to just fix them," he said. Now, the district is redirecting that money toward lasting improvements, and operating funds will not be used.

Scroll through the slideshow to read details from the discussions that evening, and check out the articles below for more background about the district's plan to overhaul its buildings. Also, check out the district's website for more information.

Here are the next meeting dates:

Jan. 11
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Heights High Social Room

Feb. 22
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Heights High Social Room

March 21
6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Heights High Social Room

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