January 2016
n
Beachwood Buzz
9
YOU
and
YOUR
Beachwood School Capital Improvement Plan Update
Message to the Community from the Superintendent
The Beachwood Board of Education has been closely studying the needs of our district's elementary
facilities and athletic fields for several years. An important milestone occurred last November,
when District Treasurer Michele Mills and I presented the school administration's recommended
plans, funding required, and probable timeline for these major capital improvements. Beachwood's
elementary buildings and athletic facilities must be our next major investments. Once these
projects are completed over the coming years, we will need no major building projects for many
decades.
We studied the needs of our elementary buildings guided by the following goals:
·
Invest in Beachwood's future
·
Remain on the forefront of education
·
Attract families to, and retain families in Beachwood Schools
Architects and cost estimators conducted months of assessments on our facilities. We compared
renovating the existing elementary buildings against consolidating them into a new addition on
the Fairmount site from the perspectives of construction costs and the ability to achieve our goals.
After extensive study, we determined that consolidating into new construction will cost only $1M
more than renovating the original elementary buildings and will offer our community far greater
educational and financial opportunities for the future.
The following pages detail our recommendation to the Board to consolidate elementary schools
on the Fairmount site as well as a phased plan to improve our athletic fields district-wide. The
Board is considering our recommendations, but has not made a final decision. Our community's
input in the coming months will play an important role in our decision-making.
Sincerely,
Robert P. Hardis
Superintendent
Beachwood City Schools