The East Muskingum School District is proposing a 12 million dollar project to build an athletic complex and an auditorium at John Glenn High School. The levy will be on the May 2 ballot.
East Muskingum School District Superintendent Jill Sheridan and East Muskingum School District Assistant Superintendent Dave Adams presented information and renderings about the levy to New Concord Village Council on their March 13 meeting. Sheridan said the slogan for the campaign, “Choose Excellence,” was incorporated due to the values of the community.
“We are founded on the choice of excellence,” said Sheridan.
The plan for the athletic conference includes an eight lane track, 2500 seats on the home side and 500 additional seats on the visitor side. Restrooms and concession stands are preliminarily located on both sides of the complex. The initial plans also call for the field to be lighted.
The East Muskingum Schools levy hopes to build a new athletic complex and auditorium. Photo from https://www.facebook.com/MuskieLevy/.
The auditorium would feature 650 seats. As of right now the current student body boasts 540 students, that would allow the entirety of all students and faculty to be in the auditorium at all at once. It would be connected to the front of John Glenn High School.
Both spaces, the athletics complex and the auditorium, would serve as educational spaces during the school day. The auditorium would feature two classrooms that can be used as practice spaces for the music classes and field would be used for gym classes.
While Sheridan said this project wouldn’t add to the number of parking spots, it would add safety and efficiency with parents dropping off students that is currently lacking.
She said it will be “safer and more efficient drop off for the [Larry Miller Intermediate School].”
Adams added the direction of the traffic will remain the same.
To date their private campaign has raised $1.6 million dollars which helps to offset the total estimated cost of the project.
“The undertaking of the private campaign, that was a part that we took on as a district because we understand that we want to offset this 12 million dollar cost so that it is not shouldered on the taxpayers alone,” said Sheridan.
According to Sheridan, that money came from “support from local people, some of them business owners.”
If the levy is passed, a homeowner whose house is valued at $100,000 would be paying $115 per year, $9.45 per month, or 0.31 per day. The Bond Levy is a 20 year levy and the Maintenance Levy is continuous.
Sheridan said that bond would be no more than for $2.8 million and the maintenance levy to keep up the project over its lifetime would cost no more than $5,000 thousand to “operate and sustain the facilities.”
Sheridan anticipates the project will benefit the community.
“We are excited for our community,” said Sheridan. “We are excited for the property owners.”
Sheridan said the building of both the athletic complex and the auditorium is about balancing academics with athletics and arts in the East Muskingum School District.
“This is more than just a facility project,” said Sheridan. “This project is a choice that we and this community have made a conscious decision to educate [and] not only keeping our academics at the forefront, making sure that’s strong, but also that our athletics and our arts are part of that whole child experience.”
More information about the project and a site plan can be found on Muskielevy.com.
The Village Council Meeting where this information was presented can be found on Orbit Media TV’s YouTube channel.
