TROY — On Tuesday, the Troy City Schools Board of Education approved to purchase approximately 19 acres to build a Pre-K-fourth grade building on State Route 718.
The property is located at 2811 W. State Route 718 and the purchase price is $375,000. The property owner is Patty Harshbarger.
According to board president Doug Trostle, part of the agreement is to allow Harshbarger and her husband Jack Putterbaugh to have a life tenancy to continue to live at the residence located on the property.
“I went to Troy City Schools kindergarten through 12th grade and then went on to being a school teacher for 30 years. I just feel like I want to give back to the schools,” said Harshbarger, who taught in Miami County, Florida and retired from a school in Maryland.
The closing of the property is expected to be complete by the end of the year. The district will perform soil testing on the site to confirm the site is useful for a new elementary school site. The purchase of the property is contingent on test results.
The property will replace the current Concord Elementary School, which just commemorated its 100th anniversary on its site.
Trostle said the district is continuing to research property in the southern area of the district. Piper said the district continues to review property sites for an additional Pre-K through fourth grade building. Trostle said they hope to have all property sites secured by the time the district places its bond issue on the ballot next spring.
Trostle said the State Route 718 property will replace the current Concord Elementary site, which has been plagued with transportation and traffic congestion issues off of McKaig Avenue, Wilson Road and Washington Road.
“The issue with the current Concord site is pick-up in the afternoons,” said Superintendent Chris Piper. “That corner is always been an on-going nightmare. I think we made some significant improvements back in 2004-2006 during renovations, but still it’s not the best place. Then when we try to put the new building on the same footprint without disrupting the current building, that becomes logistically almost impossible.”
Trostle said Harshbarger approached him about the possible purchase of the property after the district’s first attempt for the bond issue failed.
The board also approved a resolution to accept the master facility plan for the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) expedited local partnership program and a resolution of intent to participate in its half-mill maintenance requirement.
Earlier this month, Piper reported that the OFCC revised its state share of funding to the district’s future construction plans from 39 percent up to 42 percent.
The district’s plan is to build three new Pre-K through fourth grade buildings at the current locations of Cookson and Concord Elementary sites and a new site in the southern area of the district. A middle school would be located at the current Hook Elementary site and would house fifth and sixth grades. Hook and Cookson sites have city park land to expand its footprint, while the other sites such as Kyle and Forest are land locked.
