Third CH-UH Facilities Master Plan Community Meeting Set For Wednesday

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

But officials want to hear from residents as the architecture firms draft the overhaul.

The first CH-UH Facility Master Plan Community Meeting was Nov. 30, and about 80 residents and parents attended. The next meeting is from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Heights High Social Room, and residents will review proposals and compare costs of various plans.

The forum that night in November included small group work, where residents wrote their priorities on paper for the district and firms to review. These were taken into consideration while drafting the proposals, according to a press release from the district announcing the third meeting. The second meeting was Jan. 11.

District officials hope for a big turnout, and they offer food and activities for children at the meetings to encourage people to stop by and to accommodate busy parents.

At the October CH-UH School Board meeting, members approved two contracts to hire architectural firms that will work together to create a master plan. Minneapolis-based Fielding Nair, 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 in October. 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"We were band-aiding the often outdated facilities we're working in right now, and accumulated $40 million in repairs to just fix them," he said.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.

The district began examining the structural condition of its schools last year when the Ohio School Facilities Commission concluded that the buildings were antiquated and required a major overhaul. The CH-UH Citizens Facilities Committee was formed and had its first meeting in September 2010, and the school called upon outside consultants.

The facilities committee, which conducted a yearlong study of the schools — suggested the district hire experts and not waste permanent improvement funds on basic renovations.

About 50 school board and city council members, administrators, parents, teachers and others comprised the committee, which was separated into four subcommittees — facilities, educational, facilities options and finance — to focus on specific aspects of the schools.

Here are the next meeting dates, and check out the district's website, the district's blog about the process or the special Facebook page dedicated to facilities planning for more information.

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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