This plan was developed as part of Pickerington’s Plan for Progress, a plan that was created with the help of hundreds of staff and community members. It’s the community’s plan for the future. It lays out what the district must continue to do to remain on a path to providing an excellent education for each student. It reflects resident and staff input and priorities and is focused on our three main goals: academic excellence, modern facilities, and efficient operations.

The new junior high will be constructed on the approximately 66-acre parcel of land owned by the district on Lockville Road, south of Opportunity Way and adjacent to the Pickerington High School Central campus. Ridgeview STEM Junior High will be repurposed into a facility holding a separate kindergarten through fourth grade elementary school and a fifth and sixth grade middle school. Note that we gain an eighth elementary school and a fourth middle school!

Secure vestibules (entryways) and classroom space will be added at Pickerington High School North and Pickerington High School Central, while extra seating will be added in the cafeteria at Pickerington High School Central.

Pickerington Schools believes that there are several reasons why a third high school is not the best option for now:

• A new high school does not address the need for room at all levels of the district. Our plan will do the following:
  • build a new junior high;
  • renovate Ridgeview to become our 8th elementary and our 4th middle school;
  • purchase Yarmouth for a preschool with an anticipated 20 classrooms;
  • allow former preschool classrooms at Pickerington Elementary, Sycamore Creek Elementary, Tussing Elementary and Violet Elementary to be returned to kindergarten through fourth grade use;
  • and adds 24 classes at Central and 18 at North.

This addresses our needs in grades pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade, whereas a new high school only creates room at the high school level–if we built a high school, that would essentially be all we could afford to do.

• Pickerington High School North is about 313,000 square feet. Current construction costs for new K-12 facilities are around $400/square foot. So a new high school alone would cost around $125 million to $150 million by itself. That’s probably conservative for a high school facility with current construction and supply chain issues.

Pickerington Schools does not believe our community would support that much new debt–we’ve already failed a $95 million bond issue twice. We believe it is far more prudent, efficient and fiscally responsible to seek the $89.930 million bond issue that impacts all levels, not just high schools.

• Pickerington Schools has survey data to support the fact that, for the most part, our community is not ready for a third high school. This item is more about subjective preference or ‘feel,’ as moving to a third high school is regarded as a ‘watershed’ moment when our community will ‘feel’ large — like a Westerville, Hilliard, Dublin, etc.  Many still regard Pickerington as having a smaller feel to it, and a third high school would disrupt that.

And finally, a very pragmatic reason–we don’t currently own any land that is big enough for a high school and its associated campus. We would need at least 120-150 acres (North sits on about 158 acres). McGill is about 66 acres, and it would be rather odd to put a high school on that site anyway, given the proximity to Central.

District leadership needs to discuss where a third high school would even make sense based on the analysis of student growth patterns, and other factors like needed infrastructure (roads, utilities, etc.), proximity to other schools, future residential/commercial growth, etc. A parcel or parcels must then be identified that have the features needed, and we must procure the capital needed to purchase it.  Proceeds from the bond issue can be used for land, but we’re not ready at this time to identify a future high school site.

The premise of the current plan is to address the current crowding without building a new high school.

The plan adds 24 classrooms to Pickwerington High School Central. This will expand Central’s capacity by up to 720 students, or to nearly 2300 students total. It also expands Pickereington High School North by 18 classrooms or about 540 students. North’s new building capacity would be around 2400 students. With those new capacities and our projected enrollments, we don’t see North or Central being too full thru the 2029-30 school year (see chart below).

Pickerington Schools has not asked for new operating funds since August of 2011. Our current forecast shows that we should have adequate reserves at least through the 2023-24 school year.

The five year forecast plans for growth in students and staffing already, regardless of whether the current bond issue passes. Consequently, the current five-year forecast is currently showing that by the end of the 2023-24 school year, we will have potentially stretched our operating dollars as far as we can.

The district is forecasting the need for an operating levy, most likely by Spring 2024-Fall 2024.  By that point, we will have made our last operating levy last for nearly 15 years, showing our commitment to meeting the needs of our students, families and community in fiscally responsible ways.

The Pickerington Schools Board of Education approved the purchase of the property located at 13430 Yarmouth Road NW in Pickerington. The property was owned by West Fairfield OH, LLC, and was most recently leased to the Ohio Center for Occupational Safety and Health (OCOSH). The building is about 40,500 square feet. OCOSH was a division of the Ohio Bureau of Worker’s Compensation. The district spent $3 million on the purchase of the property. The purchase of the building on Yarmouth Road will allow us to create up to 20 classrooms for preschool students who are currently enrolled at Pickerington Elementary, Sycamore Creek Elementary, Tussing Elementary and Violet Elementary. This is much needed space in these elementary schools.

Pickerington Schools has a Capital Development Fund that was established in 1999 by Board Resolution. This fund was created for the purpose of, "...facilitating and encouraging donations to the School District to assist in the acquisition of land, the construction of new facilities, the renovation or expansion of existing facilities and the acquisition of other facilities for school district purposes."

From the fund's inception through August of 2020, the district funded this Capital Development Fund with proceeds from the cell tower located at Tiger Stadium and through a budgeted capital transfer in 2020 - in that period of time we amassed about $1.735 million.

In the spring of 2019, the district also passed a formal board resolution at its April 22, 2019 board meeting. This resolution approved the use of the funds in the Capital Development Fund to develop the McGill Property.  During the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years, the district also added resources to the Capital Development Fund via budgeted capital transfers to the Fund.

The district combined funds from the Capital Development Fund with other existing Capital Funds to complete the following portions of the development of the McGill site:

• Early site preparation at the McGill property, including grading and site preparation to get the property ready for future construction by running utilities (water, gas, sewer, electric, etc.) to the site - the main contractor for this work was Eramo Construction - the total paid to Eramo was $1,299,362
• Adding an athletic track, bleachers and lights to begin the process of moving Tiger Stadium to a location that is adjacent to Pickerington Central High School, and to plan for the combined seventh through twelfth grade campus setting that we wish to construct when we add the new junior high to the site - note that the track at the existing Tiger Stadium was not a regulation track, and the field at Tiger Stadium is in the Sycamore Creek floodway and flood plain - the main contractors for this were Adena (total paid about $3,051,793) and Sturdisteel (total paid about $180,292) - total paid for track, bleachers and lights about $3,232,085
• Architectural fees to SHP, Inc. for all projects - total paid about $37,034

In total, while the district has expended about $4,568,481 on the initial development of the McGill property, that amount still represents only about 5% of what is needed for the district to construct the facilities it needs to address student growth. The McGill projects did not in any way create or cause the district to have to ask for more funding, nor did the McGill projects negatively impact or affect our operations.

The funds needed for the district to complete its facility plans are currently estimated to be about $89.930 million. While the district prudently budgeted and used its Capital Development Fund and other capital funds to pay for the McGill projects, the district did not have nearly $90 million in reserves to construct a new junior high; add wings to Pickerington Central and North High Schools; and renovate Ridgeview STEM Junior High into a combined kindergarten through fourth grade and fifth and sixth grade facility. Despite Pickerington Schools' careful planning and budgeting, it was not possible for the district to raise nearly $90 million in cash for capital projects without passing the bond issue.

Moreover, the projects that we have already completed on the McGill property will allow us to construct a new junior high much faster given the utilities and grading work completed. Finally, the athletic improvements were completed using dedicated capital dollars that were not diverted from needed operational expenditures and are not included in this bond issue and counted as debt.

The $89.930 million bond is over $5 million smaller than the previous bond issues from November of 2020 and May of 2021, and it does not include funds to address athletic or extracurricular facilities.

Pickerington Schools continues to stretch its operating resources, making sure to direct funds where they have the greatest impact on student achievement.

Pickerington Schools paid off the library in December of 2016 and Tussing Elementary School in December, 2015.

At Diley and Harmon Middle Schools, we have an outstanding principal of about $1,355,805. This will be paid off (assuming no refundings) by December of 2025.

At Pickerington High School North and Lakeview Junior High, there is an outstanding principal of about $30,359,195, which will be paid off (assuming no refundings) by December of 2026.

At Toll Gate Elementary, Toll Gate Middle School, and Sycamore Creek Elementary, the outstanding principal is about $35,175,000, which will be paid off (assuming no refundings) by December 2034.

Pickerington Schools’s total outstanding principal/debt as of August 2022 is $66,890,000.