Lake Local School District (Stark County)

Hartville Elementary was 93 years old in 2015 and structurally deficient to contemporary standards. Lake Elementary, attached to Hartville, would need to be replaced in conjunction. At the middle school building, issues included air quality, the dissolving conditions of the supporting west wall, and other logistical issues caused by the design of the then 36-year-old building. The repairs of such issues would cost approximately $14 million and a replacement of the school comparatively $21 million. Project architects believe that the levy is justified by state standards which suggest a school should be replaced when renovation costs are two thirds or greater of the replacement cost. The high school requires $15 million in renovations. These come after a 1999 construction project that largely focused on the high school and not the middle school. A replacement of the high school at the time of the bond issue was $39 million.[4]

The district will restructure its schools and the grades they will contain. Lake Elementary and Hartville Elementary will be combined into a single school containing grades 2–6. Uniontown Elementary will house the districts k-2 school. The high school will now include 7th and 8th grades. Uniontown Elementary will be receiving a 9,700 square foot addition and 49,000 square feet of complete renovation of the current building. The additions at Uniontown include a new gymnasium, media center, and lunchroom. The new 2-6 building includes a 135,000 square foot addition and will receive a new mailing address. The 7-12 building will feature 64,000 square feet of renovations and 110,123 square feet of additions.[5]

Officials of the campaign to pass bond issue 14 promoted the issue believing $58 million of Ohio School Facilities Commission would be coming from a tobacco company lawsuit from 2007. The settlement in 2007 resulted in $4.1 billion for the commission. A spokesman for Ohio Facilities Construction Commission confirmed that these funds were exhausted in fiscal year 2011, four years prior to the passage of bond issue 14. The spokeswoman for Lake Local schools Karen Koch claimed after that the school wouldn't have promoted the tobacco lawsuit money if they had known it wasn't available. The funding for the project would come from state dollars, now backed by bonds sold by the Ohio general revenue fund and money allocated by legislators.[6]

“We had no idea whatsoever... Back in 2009 and 2011 when the schools tried to pass those bond issues, that (tobacco settlement) money was there, (We) were not aware that the money was not still available in 2015... We didn’t ask that question and they didn’t share it.” -Karen Koch on funding for the bond issue[6]