The Solon school board receives a recommendation to consider building a new high school

SOLON, Ohio – The Solon Board of Education is considering the option of renovating Solon High School or demolishing the existing high school and building a new one.

Mike Acomb, the district’s chief business and personnel officer and chief operating officer, presented feasibility and cost studies of both options during the board’s Oct. 9 work session.

Acomb said the recommendation to the board was to consider building a new high school.

“There seems to be more opportunity and value in this program,” he said. “The restoration program is destructive and overly complex.”

Superintendent Fred Bolden added, “New construction can help overcome some of the challenges that come with historic buildings.”

The work session consisted of administrators updating the district’s strategic plan.

Two elements of the strategic plan – facilities and response practices – were discussed on October 9. Two further elements – finance and communication – were discussed in a separate working session on October 21.

The facilities update recognized Solon Schools’ commitment to improving spaces that support academics, the arts, athletics and other activities.

Acomb said more space is needed at the high school.

“Overall, we will be looking at ways to expand the spaces we have,” he said.

Acomb said the district commissioned two studies and worked with architects from Sol Harris/Day Architecture of North Canton.

He said the estimated cost of the Solon High School basic renovation plan is about $161.3 million.

The basic plan to build a new building will actually be cheaper, Acomb said. The estimated amount is approximately $134 million.

Acomb said the basic renovation study plan does not include three optional phases: a new field house, bus complex and storage facility.

He added that including these options would increase the estimated renovation cost to about $180.9 million.

The basic new construction plan also does not include those three optional phases or renovations to the sports complex, Acomb said.

Including those options would raise the estimated cost of new construction to about $173.9 million, he said.

So the savings from new construction would be about $27.3 million for the basic plan and about $7 million for the full plan, he said.

To finance renovation or new construction, a bond issue would be necessary. Treasurer Tim Pickana discussed this item in more detail during the October 21 board work session.

Acomb said the numbers presented are based on 2023 construction costs.

He added that construction costs this year have increased by an average of about 3.5 percent.

“Whatever we do, the building must meet the quality of our standard of excellence,” Acomb said.

“Our goal is to create a high-quality facility, modernized to meet current and future needs. (We) would put needs before desires and financial responsibility.”

New construction would take less time

Acomb said another advantage of new construction is that construction of the new high school will take about four years, as opposed to the estimated 10 years if the board decides to renovate.

“You also get more value from (new construction),” he said.

“For less money and four years, you get 331,013 square feet for a new high school compared to 318,794 square feet for a renovated high school.

“Both plans alleviate concerns about adequacy.”

Acomb said the disruption that would come from renovations could be “very significant over the course of a decade.”

“An entire generation and a half of children would never have known Solon High School without the construction,” he said.
The new high school also guarantees newer educational facilities designed with the future in mind, Acomb said.

“No matter what happens, there will be inconvenience,” said board president Julie Glavin. “There is always something in construction.”

Bolden warned the board that “this is not a design of what the building will look like or anything like that.”

“We are talking about a feasibility and cost study that determines the estimated cost of constructing a building with the necessary space and amenities that we are looking for,” he said.

“This is just preliminary work.”

Acomb said the renovation study noted that access to daylight was critical to student learning “not only from an academic standpoint, but also from a well-being standpoint.”

“If renovation is chosen, part of the plan will be to increase the amount of daylight,” he said. “But the restrictions we have are quite significant.

“Most learning and staff support environments do not have access to daylight due to the existing layout.”

Acomb said it may be possible to add skylights to the existing building, but the options for daylighting are “very limited.”

In the renovation study, Acomb said about $24 million of the estimated $161.3 million would go toward creating an additional 70,000 square feet of space that he said was necessary for “swing space.”

“You add 70,000 square feet, which means more classrooms and more space,” he said. “But this supplement is not optimal.”

Solon High School was built in 1949 and has since been expanded.

“We have a very large high school with a lot of additional facilities,” Acomb said. “I think this is unique in the region.

“But not everyone has the same constraints as us with double aisle construction or additions.”

Bolden said the district is trying to provide more appropriate classrooms at the high school.

“When we start looking at renovations, we’re not just talking about cosmetic changes,” he said. “We’re talking about actually doing significant work.

“This (renovation plan) does not address the problem of 70-year-old mechanical components buried under some classrooms.”

Acomb said the district still has a “very complex physical facility” after renovations at the high school.

“Improvements to sports facilities would be limited to renovating locker rooms and things like that,” he said.

“This $161 million (estimated) does not include the field house, bus depot or storage facility. “This simply helps accelerate the development of Solon High School where possible and create 70,000 square feet of swing space.”

Bolden added, “We’re basically adding another arm to the octopus that is high school.”

The new school will be built on Arthur Road

If the board decides to build a new high school, it will be built on the site of the former Arthur Road Elementary School, Acomb said.

The Arthur Road building, at 33425 Arthur Road, closed as an elementary school after the 2015-16 school year. It was demolished in 2022.

“Part of it will be three stories, not two (as is the case with the existing high school),” Acomb said.

“It reduces costs a bit; you have lower foundation costs.”

Acomb said the plan not only gives the district the option to build a new high school slightly larger than the renovated one, but also allows for choices about class sizes and whether they are lit.

“The renovation (plan) would not meet all of the new program requirements that emerged from our interviews (with Solon High School administrators and teachers), but new construction would meet those requirements for significantly less money,” he said.

Under the new construction plan, the auditorium will be larger than the existing one at the high school, Acomb said.

“This needs to happen because we have such growing programs and phenomenal quality programs in this area,” he said.

“When you look at the size of our team, it makes sense, and it’s not something we can get in a renovated high school.

“So as we look to the future and try to make sure these programs are operating at optimal (levels), that needs to be taken into account.”

Acomb said the current high school’s athletic complex would remain under that plan.

“The swimming pool, main gym and current gym will be retained as they are all in good condition and allow us to provide a sports complex to the community,” he said.

“This allows us to mortgage the land for a future field house if the community and the board decide together where they want to go.

“We would therefore demolish most of the (existing) Solon High School to preserve the athletic facilities and create space for a future sports arena on the current Solon High School site.”

Under this plan, Acomb said the district’s storage problem could be solved by repurposing part of the existing high school.

“This plan can make significant improvements to student and parent traffic by maximizing the use of one-way traffic patterns and extending car queues on school grounds,” he said.

Doubts about primary schools

Acomb also discussed space and strategic planning issues at Solon’s three elementary schools: Lewis, Parkside and Roxbury.

Acomb said the district’s concerns about elementary schools relate to the strategic plan’s goals of improving facility quality and providing facilities that meet short- and long-term student enrollment and capacity needs.

He stated that there are opinions about insufficient space for students in primary schools.

“There are concerns that primary schools will reach maximum capacity in the next three to five years,” he said.

Other concerns, Acomb said, include insufficient staffing levels based on established class size guidelines and shared spaces being too small – such as cafeterias, gymnasiums, parking lots and special education and sensory spaces – as student numbers grow.

“It seems prudent to plan what the expansion of these buildings will look like,” he said.

“My advice to primary school students is to postpone these plans until they are needed.”

To view videos of any of the work session presentations, visit the Strategic Plan Update page at solonschools.org/our-district-0/strategic-plan.