By Brett Milam
Editor
The Milford Exempted Village School Board of Education met on April 15 to discuss the replacement of the Junior High School building.
Paul Fallon, of Fallon Research & Communications, a public opinion research and polling firm, presented his findings from a community survey conducted in late February.
John Spieser, superintendent, said the survey was “intended to determine the community’s perceptions and attitudes about local issues pertaining to our District.”
More specifically, though, the survey gauged public interest in a proposed plan to replace Milford Junior High School with a new grades six to eight Middle School.
Spieser also presented on the building replacement proposal.
The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission offer is that they will fund 1,141 students in grades seven and eight. That translates to $275 per square foot or $44 million. The local share would be 73 percent or $32 million and the state share at 27 percent or $12 million.
The Board is expected to vote on the Notice of Conditional Approval from the OFCC at its May 13 meeting.
Then the OFCC would meet on July 22 to approve Milford, although Spieser pointed out that that’s not guaranteed.
Finally, the filing deadline for a bond measure for the Nov. 2 Election would be Aug. 4. The reason for looking at that deadline is, if the OFCC approves Milford at its July 22 meeting, then Milford has 13 months to pass a new bond issue.
Failure to pass again would put the District into a “lapsed district” category.
In May 2019, voters by a 56.9 percent to 43.1 percent margin rejected a 4.7-mill bond that, among other things, would have created a new middle school. In the time after that bond failure, the Board created a Community Advisory Team to receive a recommendation on next steps.
While the OFCC funding only covers grades seven and eight, the District is looking to incorporate grade six as well. To cover roughly 500 more students and around 190,000 square feet. But adding in classroom space, the District is actually looking at around 200,000 to 225,000 square feet, particularly with keeping the next 50 years in mind.
Whatever that square footage ends up becoming above the state co-funding from OFCC, is referred to as a locally funded initiative. So the District is responsible for 100 percent of that cost.
If all were approved, construction and demolition wouldn’t occur until August 2023 through August 2025.
Adding in the OFCC money, the bond on the ballot would be anywhere from $50 million to $55 million, and the cost per $100,000 for a homeowner would depend on whether it’s a 30-year bond up to a 37-year bond.
According to the District, it’s “time” for a new building, as the Junior High building is 59 years old. Moreover, a new building would address overcrowding at the elementary buildings.
“To prepare Milford students for college and careers in the 21st century economy, we need educational spaces that are adaptable with modern science and technology labs. That starts in middle school,” the District said.
Fallon said the survey was conducted with 300 randomly selected voters registered within the school district. In addition, Fallon said there are staunch supporters of replacing the building and using bond funding to do so, and staunch opposers of such a move. Parents, nonparents, other races, unaffiliated political voters were surveyed, and highest propensity voters.
The first question was about a general feeling of whether the District was moving in the right direction or not. Overall results indicated that 55 percent of respondents thought the district was moving in the right direction, with 24 percent believing it was on the “wrong track.”
The next question was about whether property taxes in the area the respondents lived in are too high, mostly pretty fair or too low. The results were more split, with 48 percent of overall respondents saying property taxes were “too high,” and 46 percent saying “pretty fair.” Among the “staunch opposers” of a bond issue, the number was higher at 65 percent thinking property taxes were too high.
Another low mark area was that staunch opposers have “considerable misgivings,” about the job the District is doing and has been doing managing finances. On that question, only 15 percent of staunch opposers thought the District was doing excellent/good. Overall, the number was still only 37 percent.
The survey also indicated that there was not a uniform consensus on the condition of the Junior High School building, with some groups indicating it was poor, others indicating it was adequate and still others indicating they were unfamiliar.
Still, on the question of whether, “generally speaking,” respondents supported or opposed replacing the building, overall 57 percent supported the idea, with 30 percent opposed. Among parents, that number was even higher at 79 percent support.
That number goes even higher when the question is asked again once respondents know the full scope of the replacement plan to 69 percent support, 23 percent oppose. Again, among parents, that number skyrocketed to 94 percent.
WinterGuard recognized
At the beginning of the board meeting, Dan Yeager, director of fine arts, extracurriculars and activities, talked about the Milford High School WinterGuard, which received a “master” rating at the Winter Guard International 2021 virtual event.
WGI Sport of the Arts is an organization for indoor color guard, percussion and winds competitions.
A “master” rating is the highest score possible, putting Milford’s WinterGuard as one of the best in the nation in the Scholastic Open category.
“Their program is beautiful,” Yeager said.
Students’ artwork was also recognized, a tradition started in October 2018’s school board meeting. The artwork will be displayed throughout the administrative offices of the board, located at 1099 state Route 131.
This month, seven students from Milford Junior High School were recognized: Elena Ditchen, grade seven; Grace Hammond, grade eight; Annalise Hyott, grade eight; Bria Lee, grade eight; Van Lewis-Rogers, grade seven; Noah Phillips, grade seven; and Sawyer Rowekamp, grade seven.