Posted: 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014

Middletown High School may include city convention center

By Rick McCrabb

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

    Middletown school officials and teachers have toured three area high schools — Hamilton, Princeton and Huber Heights Wayne — looking for potential design ideas for the district’s new middle school and renovated high school.

    The district also is seeking input from the community and students to see what they expect and want out of the district’s buildings that will be funded through the $95-million bond that passed in May by 22 votes, according to final results from the Butler and Warren county boards of elections.

Of the $95 million, $40 million was supposed to come from the Ohio School Facilities Commission, but recently it was announced the OSFC approved $51.4 million for the Middletown district.

    It is expected that on Thursday, $45 million of unlimited tax general obligation school improvement bonds will be sold by RBC Capital Markets as underwritten for the district. Superintendent Sam Ison said the district received an A minus rating, which he called “not bad.”

    Eventually, a new middle school will be built somewhere on the high school campus on Breiel Boulevard, across the street from Miami University Middletown, and MHS will be renovated and expanded. George Long, the district’s business manager, told a small group that recently attended a community meeting, that he envisions building onto the front portion of the high school.

“We want to change the feeling of the building,” he said. “A new look … a very rejuvenated look.”

    Middletown high and middle schools also may be “joined buildings,” Ison said. This concept would allow staff and students to move more smoothly between the buildings. Long said if the district combined the high school and middle school together, it would lose an unknown amount of state funding. But by keeping them separate, the district can get the “best of both worlds,” he said.

    There also has been some discussions on how to incorporate a convention center into the high school. Middletown has no sites that can host more than 300 people. Business leaders have said they’d like to keep the larger events in the city, and they think those could be held at the high school during the summer.

    The site will have three gyms: the Paul Walker Gym at the high school; the one in the middle school; and an arena with an undisclosed seating capacity.

    District officials also talked about constructing a central heating and air conditioning unit that would serve both buildings; the possibility of adding flexibility into the learning spaces; installing improved security measures; and making the buildings more accessible for the community to use on nights and weekends.

    No timetable has been set on construction of the middle school and renovations to the high school.

    Long said the district hopes to make presentations to the community through the Chamber of Commerce, Middletown Community Foundation and service organizations.

 Hmmm...I thought the 10 million dollar restoration of the Manchester Inn that is going to be completed in 2016 was going to serve as the convention center for Middletown...

bumper wrote: the 10 mill given to the inn, imo nothing but a big waste!! by the time 2016 gets here it will be the same old downtown ..it will never make it to be a Petula kinda downtown!!  and when 95 mill is thrown at some people running the show, they always seem to find crazy ways to blow it...<h1 id="watch-line-title" ="yt" style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-size: 24px; color: rgb34, 34, 34; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; overflow: ; font-family: arial, sans-serif; -: initial; -attachment: initial; -size: initial; -origin: initial; -clip: initial; -: initial; -repeat: initial;"> </h1>

As long as the city doctrine is to:

1. Loan money to various endeavors downtown without requiring payback.

2. Insist that they be involved with business development and not fade away and let the private sector determine how the downtown is developed.

3. Determine what types of businesses will occupy downtown...IE artzy, cultural, citizen majority non-interest pigeon-hole type businesses.

4. Only listen to the small minority elitists that insists on changing the downtown to something that will never attract enough people to fill the sidewalks.

5. Ignore the wants and needs of the majority in this city consisting of blue-collar, moderate to low income people. Totally out of touch with the demographics.

6. Follow the MMF doctrine which includes exclusionary attitudes toward the majority of people living in this city and has not focused on what is needed most.......DECENT PAYING JOBS.

7. Continue to operate with a secret, behind the scenes culture that caters to a select inner circle only, while the general populace has no say in the operation of their city.

8. Continue to spend this cash-strapped city's money on white elephant projects that have a projected failure rate of close to 100%. Very little has been successful, but so much has been tried...to no avail.

The situation will not change for the better. Like the schools, we will continue to see the same failed ideas and projects from the people running the show while the city crashes and burns a day at a time.

We need either totally new people with a completely different approach or the people in power now, need to change their attitudes and focus 180 degrees. One thing is for sure......it hasn't worked for a long time and will never work on the current path. Time and history have proven that to be a fact. Just look at the state of affairs in this city. It is sad to see each day.