The Northwest Local School Board approved a facilities plan Monday to combine Northwest High School with Colerain High School.
The plan would move students from Northwest to Colerain High which is set to be renovated and converted into the district's central high school with a capacity of about 2,500 students.
The Northwest High School building would be demolished and replaced with a new Pleasant Run Middle School. The construction of a new Colerain Elementary & Preschool building along with a new Colerain Middle School is also included in the plan.
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Before construction on any of these projects begins, the district will submit the plan to the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission for state funding approval. Depending on how much money Northwest Local Schools receives from the state, the district may ask the community to support a bond issue that could appear on the November ballot at the very earliest to move forward with the project.
Currently, the district doesn't have a timeline.
Board President Nicole Taulbee says combining the district's high schools will be beneficial for students. Colerain High School has just under 1,500 students, while the smaller Northwest High School has under 800 according to the Ohio School Report Card. Putting the two together would allow Colerain High School to offer students more programming in a newly constructed facility with an attached career tech center, gym, and 1,000-seat auditorium.
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"For me, it's important that we have equity amongst all of our high school students for educational offerings, music, athletics, and I think this is a great opportunity for us to do that," Taulbee said at Monday's meeting.
Northwest Local Schools says the merger and new construction will help improve traffic flow at Colerain and reduce the district's overall maintenance costs.
This district is also looking into additional funding to support high school busing.
Plans for the Northwest's new buildings can be viewed on the district's website.
