Cleveland Hill project firms up
An $8.3 million renovation project for the Cleveland Hill School District is taking shape, as the Board of Education finalizes details on changes to the district’s buildings, grounds, and other assets.
Drawings for the project, approved in a February referendum, will likely be submitted to its major funder, the statewide Expanding Our Children’s Education and Learning program, or EXCEL, by mid-November, according to Jerry Young, managing partner of Buffalo’s Young Architectural firm. The project would draw about $165,000 from the district’s reserve funds and impose no local tax levy.
During a meeting of the board Wednesday, Young said the upgrades to the middle school and high school auditorium would remove a total of 70 seats, leaving about 760, to install a range of wider seats across the floor and balcony.
The newer seats will range from 19 to 22 inches, Young said, accommodating a larger range of audience members more comfortably.
The district’s universal greeting sign will also be upgraded from a single rectangular slab to a V-shaped board that can be updated with wireless signals to display text and pictures. Board members agreed informally Wednesday that the sign should remain where it is, facing Mapleview Road and across from the Corey Court entranceway but placed to offer views to traffic coming from nearly all directions.
Young said the state Department of Education had suggested a 20-to 22-week review and approval process for the capital project’s drawings and plans. With other districts scaling back or holding off on projects due to the economy, however, Young suggested the plans may return sooner and that contractors may present lower bids if the project is approved by spring.
