By Rick Palsgrove
Groveport Editor
Groveport Madison Schools officials are beginning to receive information that will be used to formulate the district’s Master Facilities Plan.
On April 27, Matthew Cropper of Cropper GIS Consulting presented the Groveport Madison Board of Education with the results of its school capacity study. The company’s demographic study is still ongoing. The cost to the district for both studies is $35,500.
Earlier this year, as part of the Master Facilities Plan process, the board also approved contracting with SHP Architects for $77,000 for facility planning regarding the potential renovation, expansion, or replacement of the district’s existing elementary and middle schools.
Cropper toured the district’s schools in March and met with administrators. He said the district identifies a maximum of 30 students per classroom, but the district did not indicate its ideal class size. He also met with building principals to learn about the building/room uses and limitations.
According to his presentation to the board, “There could be rooms that could be used as standard classrooms, but are being used in an alternative way because there is available and/or not enough space. For elementary schools, certain spaces are not counted in the capacity. These include pull-out/resource rooms, music, and art.”
Cropper said music and art rooms as well as older lab spaces with classroom seats were calculated in the middle and high schools’ capacity. He also said a “utilization factor” was applied to the middle and high schools. This accounts for how students travel from class to class and pressures that are put on the “core capacity” of buildings, such as hallways, cafeteria, etc.
As of October 2021, the district had 6,271 students. In comparison, enrollment was 5,569 in 2015-16.
District officials state overcrowding is the central issue facing the district, but other factors to be considered in the facilities planning process include the age, condition, efficiency, adaptability, and cost to maintain the existing elementary and middle schools.
To deal with student overcrowding, the district has 24 modular classrooms in use, including a single quad-classroom unit at Groveport Elementary, two double-classroom units at Asbury Elementary and Dunloe Elementary, and six double-classroom units at Sedalia Elementary.
School capacity study results
Below are the total classroom capacities, according to Cropper’s school capacity study, (enrollment numbers are as of December 2021) for Groveport Madison’s schools:
•Asbury Elementary – Built in 1963 with additions in 1968 and 1969. Enrollment, 476. Classroom capacity, 385.
•Dunloe Elementary – Built in 1967 with additions in 1968 and 1969. Enrollment, 448. Classroom capacity, 444.
•Glendening Elementary – Built in 1968 with addition in 1974. Enrollment, 455. Classroom capacity, 480.
•Groveport Elementary – Built in 1923. Enrollment, 417. Classroom capacity, 408. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
•Madison Elementary – Built in 1967 with additions in 1968 and 1969. Enrollment, 354. Classroom capacity, 359.
•Sedalia Elementary – Built in 1969 with addition in 1974. Enrollment, 562. classroom capacity, 456. (Sedalia has a semi-permanent portable building that has a classroom capacity of 200.)
•Middle School North – Built in 1975. Enrollment, 495. Classroom capacity, 583.
•Middle School South – Built in 1975. Enrollment, 466. Classroom capacity, 485.
•Middle School Central – Built in stages as a high school between 1952-56. Enrollment, 448. Classroom capacity, 463. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
•High School, built in 2018. Enrollment, 1,881. Classroom capacity 1,440.
(Functional capacity is 85 percent of original design capacity and reflects modern requirements for classroom space and programming. Source: Groveport Madison Schools.)
Timeline
District officials indicated a completed Master Facilities Plan and a board resolution for the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission would be needed by April 2023 in order to receive funding approval from the OFCC for buildings.
A potential bond issue for new buildings could appear on the November 2023, May 2024, or August 2024 ballot.
A bond issue must pass by August 2024 or else the district would have to reapply for OFCC funding.
The district’s five year renewal general operating levy is tentatively scheduled for the November 2024 ballot as that is latest date it can be approved for the district to start collecting money in 2025.
