Second Meeting of the Quaker Spirit Facilities Improvement Committee 

Second Meeting of the Quaker Spirit Facilities Improvement Committee 

On October 24th, the Facilities Improvement Committee held its second meeting to continue exploring options to address facility challenges in the New Philadelphia City School District. Attended by over 65 community members, teachers, parents, and students, the group discussed their preferences on master plan arrangements that they felt would best serve the school district for the years ahead. Further, they explored how elementary school consolidation could impact the current aging elementary school buildings.

During this session, attendees divided into small groups and assembled their own master plan options, which included considerations for building types, project costs, and student enrollment. They then reported to the larger group on reasons why they developed their specific plan.

Several common themes of the groups who presented began to reoccur through their work. This included:

• Most groups seemed to prefer retaining the Quaker Dome to serve the preschool program

• They were interested in exploring options to build either a new 6-12 or 7-12 school

• Groups were interested in consolidating the elementary schools into a single building or two-grade banded buildings to serve the elementary grades

• Many groups were interested in exploring how different site arrangements could work with various building configurations and what impact this would have on the plans

  • • Notably, some favored a campus-style plan, while others were interested in building new schools on existing district-owned sites

While these don't constitute final decisions, they begin to indicate the direction most groups favor.

Board work conducted by each group.

Additionally, consolidation of the district's elementary schools was discussed, and attendees were surveyed on their overall preferences. The three options included:

• Neighborhood Elementaries: Schools that contain all the elementary grades in them

• Grade Banded Elementaries: Schools that contain specific grades in them

• Consolidated Elementary: One School that contains all the elementary grades in it

While this doesn't constitute a final decision, two-thirds of the group preferred consolidating elementary grades into one building.

No plan has been finalized, and future sessions will continue to explore sites, how a plan could be segmented, and further define plan options. 

The next session is scheduled for November 30th. We encourage you to attend and provide input!