Harrison Hills City School District students will be entering a new PK-12 building beginning in August of 2019. Construction is well underway for the over 200,000 square feet 50 classroom building. This 50 acre new facility will sit south of the Village of Cadiz off of Route 9. The building will house a 650 seat auditorium, 1400 seat gymnasium, 400 seat junior high gymnasium, two cafeterias, 10 extended learning classrooms, vo-ag classroom and green house, state of the art industrial arts room. and state of the art fitness center. The property will also be the new home for the 8 lane competition track facility. SHP is the architectural firm designing the PK-12 complex and Hammond construction is the firm managing all sub contractors. Community, students, parents, faculty, administrators, and board of education members have had input into the 21st. Century Design building. The new facility will be accomplished due to the generosity of the Harrison County voters approving a 4.98 bond issue in November of 2015.
Harrison Hills Approves New Football Turf
Harrison Hills Board of Education (HHBOE) unanimously approved, in a 5-0 vote new artificial turf for the high school’s football field. Superintendent Snider noted that this year they budgeted for the new turf. According to all who spoke, they emphasized that no money is coming from the school levy. “It’s all general funds and Permanent Improvement funds,” Snider said.
Turf work is planned for late March or early April and to be ready sometime in June, according to Kowalski. Snider stated that both men’s and women’s soccer and our junior high football teams will now be able to use the same field instead of bussing them to a Scio field. Kowalski also noted that this new turf can be used for all sports in all types of weather with the flexibility for baseball, softball or just plain running. “All sports will benefit from it,” he said. Kowalski also noted the choosing of the color gray wasn’t just one person but many were involved where they felt it would exemplify school pride. “It’s going to add to our school colors and school spirit.”
When it comes to the cost of the turf, expect to hear around $900,000 with the turf itself costing approximately $760,000, which includes a “safety pad” underneath the turf for extra cushion. Some extra work around the perimeter of the field like laying concrete on one end is to make up the difference. Students will be on the field for July conditioning.
Safe Schools Healthy
Students Grant
Provides Services
The Safe Schools Healthy Students grant has provided funding for counseling services, prevention specialists, a truancy prevention specialist, teacher professional development, field trips, curriculum, and school supplies. Students Against Destructive Decisions is one of the funded activities. This group now known as Husky Life-Changers is a youth led organization within Central that creates prevention awareness and changes within the school. This program promotes students to make good decisions throughout their lives.
Safe Routes To Schools
Funding Granted
Director of Operations for the Harrison Hills City School District (HHCSD), Mark Kowalski appeared at Cadiz Village Council meeting to announce a program that started one year ago. Kowalski stated that he and HHCSD Superintendent, Dana Snider attended an Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) District 11 meeting to seek funding for a Safe Routes to School Program.
“We had to form a committee, go through a process like any grant or plan. The mayor is on our committee as well as other community officials and members,” Kowalski explained. “We had to come up with goal was to find alternatives for school children to attend school such as walking or biking." The district received nearly $300,000 from ODOT.
Development Specialist and Transportation Planner for the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association (OMEGA), Kevin Buettner then spoke next basically repeating some of Kowalski’s sentiments regarding getting each step out of the way for giving kids of all ages the opportunity to be able to walk or bike to school if they want.
“Within two miles of the new school, 57 percent of the current student body reside,” Buettner noted, “which for such a large district, it’s a better part of Harrison County, that’s huge and we want to capitalize on that…” Buettner stressed that the aim was to rid the project of any barriers such as poor or no sidewalks for example.
“Now that we have this new school going in we want to maximize the amount of people that can walk and bike and, get the kids out and about and kind of alleviate some of the traffic congestion…” Buettner described.These biking and walking trails will connect Country Club Boulevard and Route 9 to the new school. These trails will be completed shortly after the school opens in fall of 2019.
“We had to form a committee, go through a process like any grant or plan. The mayor is on our committee as well as other community officials and members,” Kowalski explained. “We had to come up with goal was to find alternatives for school children to attend school such as walking or biking." The district received nearly $300,000 from ODOT.
Development Specialist and Transportation Planner for the Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association (OMEGA), Kevin Buettner then spoke next basically repeating some of Kowalski’s sentiments regarding getting each step out of the way for giving kids of all ages the opportunity to be able to walk or bike to school if they want.
“Within two miles of the new school, 57 percent of the current student body reside,” Buettner noted, “which for such a large district, it’s a better part of Harrison County, that’s huge and we want to capitalize on that…” Buettner stressed that the aim was to rid the project of any barriers such as poor or no sidewalks for example.
“Now that we have this new school going in we want to maximize the amount of people that can walk and bike and, get the kids out and about and kind of alleviate some of the traffic congestion…” Buettner described.These biking and walking trails will connect Country Club Boulevard and Route 9 to the new school. These trails will be completed shortly after the school opens in fall of 2019.
Harrison Hills Makes Administrative Changes
Some old faces will be in new positions beginning August 1, 2017. Brent Ripley will replace Mark Kowalski as Director of Operations. Kowalski accepted a superintendent position at Liberty Benson School District. Brent Ripley is the current Harrison Central High School principal. He has been principal there since 2013. Ripley's replacement will be Ken Parker. Parker is the current Central Middle School principal. He actually replaced Ripley in 2013 in this position. The Central staff had a dessert celebration for both administrators.