By Rick Palsgrove
Southeast Editor
The Groveport Madison school district is growing and officials state this growth means an addition must be built on the new high school.
“When the high school was approved to be built with 53 percent of the funding coming from the state, we had to use the enrollment numbers the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission had in 2014,” said Groveport Madison Schools Superintendent Garilee Ogden. “We did anticipate growth, but the state funding requirements mandate that you use current numbers. At the time, the high school was projected to be at approximately 1,420 students. The high school was built to meet the enrollment needs in 2014, as funding allows.”
Ogden said the current enrollment is 1,773 for the high school and 6,103 for the district.
“We are having an enrollment projection study done now to see what our enrollment projections will look like for the next five years,” said Ogden.
Ogden said the addition to the high school would include four classrooms.
“As of right now, they would be general classrooms,” said Ogden. “What we will place in them will be determined, but they will be built as general classrooms.”
She said the addition would be placed on the east wing of the high school and be two stories tall.
Ogden said the construction of the addition would be funded by existing money generated from savings from the original high school construction project.
“We believe that the addition should not exceed the balance of the project money saved from the initial build, and the co-funded amount, which is just over $2 million.”
When asked when the addition would be built and what is its anticipated completion date would be, Ogden said, “We are still awaiting approval from the OFCC. We have submitted our request, and provided them all of the requested documentation. They recently requested our current enrollment to use, which is at 1,773.”
As to where the growth is coming from in the Groveport Madison school district, Ogden said, “We did get a few new students from the closing of ECOT last spring, but most of the students are new students moving to the district.”
Ogden said the new high school is capable of taking on more additions in the future if necessary.
“We would have to work with the architects to design that based on what future addition needs would be, but there is space to add on more rooms if needed,” said Ogden.
