At Brunswick City Schools, we do our best to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment for students to thrive. As with any aging structure, repairs and maintenance are more frequent and costly the older a building becomes (e.g., maintenance and repairs of a newer home are much less frequent than that of an older home). While ongoing maintenance for the HS has provided an acceptable learning environment, the District cannot keep pace with the resources needed to address the aging systems and ongoing repairs. As evidenced by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) Facilities Assessment, Brunswick High School has reached the point where maintaining and repairing the current structures to meet the OFCC standards costs more than 77% of building a new high school.

To remain fiscally responsible, the district must evaluate the cost effectiveness of new construction compared to the renovation of existing structures.

The BCSD Board of Education voted to place a 3.3 mill bond issue on the May 02, 2023, ballot to fund the Master Facilities Plan. The cost to fund this issue is $7.00/mo per $100k of home value.

The property tax will not be levied until 2024, meaning collections will not begin until 2025. 

A Master Facilities Plan is an opportunity to set forth a roadmap that allows for state-of-the-art facilities in a fiscally responsible way. By reconfiguring our district buildings, we are setting our district up for decades of success. This plan is not a quick fix, but rather a long-term commitment to ensuring the health of Brunswick City Schools. Established as a priority in our 2019 strategic plan, the Master Facilities Plan is the culmination of a comprehensive and focused planning process.

As part of the Master Facilities Plan, we will: 

• Build a new high school.
• Add classrooms and make site improvements to improve traffic patterns at Applewood and Kidder Elementary Schools.
• Build a performing arts center for the high school with seating for 1,000.
• Build a new synthetic turf multi-purpose field, tennis courts and a full-sized baseball field.
• Demolish the current maintenance building, Towslee Elementary, Willetts Middle School and the existing Brunswick High School.
• Build a new maintenance facility.
• Build a Board of Education office on the current site of Willetts Middle School for a more cost-effective and intentional space following the demolition of the current BHS.

In the spring of 2022, the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) notified BCSD that the state would pay for 39% of the primary building recommended by the Master Facilities Plan: a new high school.

The Board of Education voted in August 2022 to pursue a ballot issue to help fund the plan's implementation. To receive state funding to pay for 39% of the high school, the school district must move forward with the Master Facilities Plan within 13 months (by September 2023).

In January 2023, the Board voted to place a 3.3 mill bond issue on the May 02, 2023, ballot. The cost to fund this issue is $7.00/mo per $100k of home value.

The property tax will not be levied until 2024, meaning collections will not begin until 2025.

The OFCC completed a facilities assessment as part of the funding process. That assessment concluded that renovating the current high school would cost $93 million. Building a new high school of the same square footage would cost $120 million. The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission’s guideline establishes a benchmark to replace versus renovate standards for school facilities at ⅔ (66%) of the cost of a new building. This means that if the cost of renovation exceeds ⅔ the cost of a new building, the state will only fund new construction.

Through the funding process, the OFCC completed an enrollment study, projecting an overall decrease in Ohio’s enrollment of approximately 4% over the next 10 years. Medina county is projected to see an enrollment decrease of 18%, resulting in the loss of 460 BCSD students over the next 10 years. This is comparable to an entire grade level.

By reconfiguring our elementary buildings and building a new high school, we’re preparing for a more efficient use of space that will house the current and projected student body. This allows us to continue being fiscally responsible, while also meeting our students' needs for decades to come.

The closing of Towslee due to decreasing enrollment will require current students and staff to be shifted to other buildings. Looking at the existing footprint of our elementary school geography, it makes the most sense to move a majority of these students to Applewood and Huntington. This shift will help maintain the sense of community in our elementary schools and maximize transportation efficiency. While Huntington has space to accommodate additional teachers and students, Applewood does not. These improvements will provide the necessary square footage to add additional learning spaces.

Kidder Elementary houses Brunswick City School District's preschool program.

BCSD recognizes the positive educational impact of preschool on young learners and proudly offers a program geared toward providing a positive first classroom experience for students of all abilities. However, as the guidance around providing preschool services to students typically developing and special needs continues to evolve, it is evident we do not have adequate space to offer state-required services for our preschool students. 

Kidder is also the only elementary school that does not have a classroom specifically designed for music education. Music education provides essential learning opportunities for students that contribute to academic and social development. The additions at Kidder elementary will provide the necessary space to accommodate the preschool program and provide music instruction.

BCSD has a rich tradition of offering after-school enrichment activities for high school students. These activities, like marching band and sports, help students form meaningful relationships with their peers and activity advisors. In turn, these relationships help students develop connections that positively impact their academic achievement and social development.

Adding a multi-purpose turf field would provide a relatively maintenance-free, durable surface that can be used independently of weather conditions for marching band, physical education classes, sports and more.

Building tennis courts on campus would allow our current tennis athletes to have access to on-site training providing flexibility and increased safety and supervision.  In addition, having tennis courts on campus would eliminate the responsibility of maintaining the City of Brunswick tennis courts during the Fall and Spring Seasons providing additional cost savings to the District. 

Building additional baseball fields on campus would assist in meeting our current needs, as multiple teams are traveling off-site for games and practices that our maintenance personnel then have to care for.

The total cost of the co-funded project (i.e., the new high school and demolition and abatement of the current high school, Towslee and Willets) is $109,271,735. The State share is 39% or $42,615,977 and the district share is 61% or $66,655,758.

The cost of the locally funded initiatives (project items the State will not fund) is $35,344,242, which includes a performing arts center, a synthetic turf multi-purpose field, relocation and construction of the district maintenance and administrative facilities, safety/traffic improvements at Applewood and Kidder and a cost-escalation contingency.

The cost of funding the bond issue needed to implement the Master Facilities Plan is $7.00/mo per $100k of home value. 

The property tax will not be levied until 2024, meaning collections will not begin until 2025.

The bonds will be issued for a 37 year term.

In November 2017, voters approved a 3.2 mill bond issue to construct Brunswick Middle School.  As a result of community approval, the State contributed $18.6m toward that project.

In May of 2021, voters approved a 5.9 mill operating levy, which can only be used for operating expenses and not for construction or building projects. This was the first time since 2006 that the school district received additional operating dollars.

In May 2022, voters approved a 4.5 mill renewal levy that did not increase taxes or generate new money for the district.

No. The bond levy will be used to fund the components outlined in the Master Facilities Plan.  By law, bond funds cannot be used to pay salaries or operating expenses.

BCSD periodically asks voters to renew existing operating levies every two to three years. These levies do not increase taxes.  According to the current district forecast, BCSD does not expect to need additional operating dollars for five to six years.

If the BCSD approves the bond issue in May, we anticipate that a new high school would open for the 2026-27 school year, meaning this year’s eighth grade class would be housed in the new building for their senior year, and this year’s fifth grade class would spend all four years in the new building.

Both Applewood and Kidder Elementary Schools are nestled in quiet neighborhoods, where current traffic patterns present significant safety and transportation challenges. Currently, buses, parents, and student walkers share a single entrance to gain entry to the parking lot of these buildings.

While this presents traffic flow complications, most importantly, it raises serious safety concerns for our students. Adding an additional bus loop would alleviate traffic congestion and increase student safety.

In the proposed plan, a Board of Education office will be built on the former site of Willetts Middle School. Because the current BOE office is included in the original footprint of the high school, utilizing its current location would be a more expensive option due to the reengineering of its 41-year-old structure, including existing plumbing, HVAC, and electrical that would be needed for it to remain.

The cost to renovate the current BOE office in its current location is estimated at $6.8 million. The cost of building a new structure on the site of Willetts Middle School is estimated at $5.2 million.

When discussing the potential ballot issue in May 2023, the Board of Education reviewed several options to understand how changes to the Master Facilities Plan would impact taxpayer costs, financial outcomes for the district and our mission to ensure the success of every student through a rigorous curriculum, relevant experiences, and meaningful relationships while fostering our students' love of learning.

The Board reviewed five different options: 

• Option 1 reviewed the original scope of the Master Facilities Plan
• Option 2 looked at attaching the Board of Education Office to the new high school
• Option 3 eliminated safety upgrades and additional infrastructure at Applewood and Kidder Elementary Schools
• Option 4 moved the Board of Education Office and Maintenance Department to the existing structure of Willetts Middle School
• Option 5 looked at abandoning the opportunity with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission and reactively repairing the high school

Ultimately, the Board of Education decided it was in the best interest of the students to pursue the original plan to address the district’s facility needs with a May 2023 ballot issue.

The Master Facilities Plan relocates and constructs a separate maintenance building on the Willetts site. Because our maintenance department uses heavy machinery such as forklifts, dump trucks and snow plows, keeping it at its current location would have a negative impact on daily bus, student and family traffic.

Willetts Middle School will be demolished, and the site will be utilized for the BOE office and new maintenance building.

Willetts Middle School is a 73,000-square-foot facility that is too large for one elementary school, and with declining enrollment, there is no need to add an additional elementary building and as evidenced by the State assessment report, the building has a compromised structural foundation that would be costly to repair. In addition, knowing the status of the building, a significant portion of the building's HVAC has been repurposed for parts to repair other HVAC systems throughout the district as a cost-saving measure.

The Brunswick City School District’s strategic plan, adopted in 2019, set forth goals in teaching and learning, developing the whole child, communications and finance and facilities. The finance and facilities goal included the development of a Master Facilities Plan to address the district's short and long term facility needs. This committee was made up of parents, community members, business leaders, government officials, higher education professionals, and district administrators.

Information regarding the Master Facilities Plan is available here on our website through this dedicated section for updates regarding the plan. Additionally, information is available through Superintendent Updates, district communication and social media posts that can be accessed through the website if you are not a parent in the district.

A Visioning Committee, including community members, parents and district staff, has also been formed to participate in facilities and master planning discussions.

For additional information or questions beyond what is posted on our website, please reach out to Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer at jniedermeyer@bcsoh.org or CFO/Treasurer Mark Pepera at mpepera@bcsoh.org.