Facility Focus

Approximately 700,000 square feet of academic facilities. 200 acres of land. One goal: Support an "ALite" education for each student in the Avon Lake City School District, and help students prepare for an evolving world.

What's going on in our schools from a facilities and support staff standpoint? What projects are we working on in the Operations Department? We publish this quarterly newsletter to celebrate success, share challenges, and help our community stay informed about the facilities of the Avon Lake City Schools.

Behind Learwood Middle School, the future of the school district continues to take shape. With site work essentially complete, it's almost time for the new Avon Lake Middle School to go vertical.

After fencing off the site before the school year got underway, work began in earnest. To prepare the site for a new, 128,000 square foot building, construction drives, parking, and lay-down areas had to be established. Water lines and sanitary sewer piping had to be placed. Stormwater retention basins needed to be constructed. As tons of dirt and stone were constantly being placed and pushed, the footprint of the new facility began to take shape. Now, when looking at a birds-eye view of the site, we can truly envision where the new building will be, and can start looking forward to its completion in less than two years.

All of this is being done while school is still in session at Learwood! We want to acknowledge the patience and flexibility of the students, parents, staff, and administration of the middle school as we have navigated everything from traffic and construction noise to fire drills and athletic adjustments. You are helping to provide the strong foundation from which our new middle school will soon rise!

You may have taken a class like this as "Home Economics" or "Family and Consumer Science," but in a nod to the modern-day needs of students, the "Adulting 101" course covers all manner of topics, from cooking and cleaning to basic home repairs and personal finance. We look forward to seeing how the course will evolve this year and in the years to come.

This isn't the only location at the high school receiving some TLC. The last major round of updates at the high school took place over a quarter century ago, and some hallways, classrooms, and large spaces appear almost exactly as they did in the 1970s. We are working diligently to "refresh" the high school as time and budget permits, working to secure the future of this nationally-ranked institution of which we are so proud.

Each year, in the fall, the Operations Department presents a summary of some of the major projects completed within the last year. This year will be no different, with the annual presentation taking place at the November Board meeting.

What will be different, however, is that the department will also bring to the Board, for its consideration, a brief but thorough long-range facilities maintenance and capital improvement plan. While the district took action in several key areas based on the facilities assessment conducted in 2020 by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC), this document will bring that report up to date and attempt to flesh out both the district's preventative maintenance plan and future needs, broken down by building.

The plan will not only formalize and bring together items that have heretofore existed on separate documents (for example, transportation fleet data), but demonstrate how facilities consolidation and the current major construction/renovation projects are actively saving the district money and allowing the district to shift focus from repair priorities at Learwood, Troy, and the elementary schools to necessary work at the high school, securing the long-term facilities future of the district as a whole.