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

Middletown High School may include city convention center

By  http://www.journal-news.com/staff/rick-mccrabb/" rel="nofollow - 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...