CHUH School Facilities Committee to Present Recommendations to the Board of Education

The Cleveland Heights-University Heights School Facilities Committee will present its recommendations on how the district should manage its outdated buildings at 7 p.m. Tuesday at .

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. 

In response, the district formed the CHUH School Facilities Committee, which includes teachers, school administrators, City Council members, parents and others, and is divided into four subcommittees.

The group began surveying school facilities in September to determine how to address the state’s findings, and Fielding Nair was hired in February for about $13,400 to devise broad recommendations based on work at other schools around the world and its study of CHUH. The consultant and two subcommittees of the citizens' group – finance and facilities options –  to the full committee at the end of April. Other committees presented the results of their survey earlier this year. 

All concluded that reducing the overall physical size of the district and renovating and possibly rebuilding was essential, as the student population is expected to drop in the future and facilities are outdated. And voters would have to pass a bond issue to pay for some of the upgrades — estimated to cost anywhere from $170 million to $226 million, depending on if they renovate all buildings or close a few.

The district held another meeting May 12 for the public to comment and provide suggestions on the reports. Sixteen people attended, many of whom have lived in the district for more than 20 years. They asked several questions, including how the district would reuse vacant buildings if they closed schools and how long the remodeled buildings would last.

The committee will now present its recommendations to the board at a special meeting Tuesday based on several months of study.

But once the committee gives its recommendation to the board, a final plan for the schools still lies far ahead in the future, said Stephen Shergalis, director of business services, by email in May. 

“After the School Facilities Committee recommendations are made at the July board meeting, we will continue to engage the community and our staff to begin developing specific options … Community meetings have been and will continue to be built into this process,” Shergalis said. “The members of the current Facilities Committee and several staff members have invested nearly a year into researching, touring, and analyzing our buildings and buildings in other districts around the state, country and world.  This is something we are taking very seriously and aren’t going to rush.”

Descriptions from meetings this year and findings and reports from the subcommittees and consultant are available under the "Announcements" section on the CHUH School District homepage.