BY ANDREA TORTORA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
FORT THOMAS -- Plans for Fort Thomas School's new middle school are moving forward, with an architect to be chosen next week.
School board members are scheduled to discuss architects' proposals for the $15 million project at a meeting Tuesday night. "This is the first phase of what we hope will be a new campus," Superintendent Larry Stinson said Friday.
With 1,173 students crammed into the Highlands High-Middle School building and mobile classrooms on the front lawn, the district needs more space.
The board has approved a plan to build a new middle school and later a new high school on the current Highlands site. The $15 million price tag for the middle school is all-inclusive. Construction costs will total between $11 million and $12 million.
The school board decided to build new facilities to reduce school crowding while providing state-of-the-art facilities.
Student growth projections for the next 20 years show the district needs a high school for 1,000 students and a middle school for 750 students.
Deciding how to configure new structures has been the sticking point because the district is limited to building on the 15 acres it owns on Memorial Parkway, where Highlands High stands.
The board considered several options, including renovations and additions to Highlands High for use as a high school or middle school; construction of a new middle school; or construction of a high school.
When the district moves to build a new high school, the original Highlands building will be torn down, at a cost of $850,000.
Mr. Stinson said residents will be asked to help pay for the project, but they won't have to shoulder the total cost immediately. The district has $13 million in bonding potential. Board members said taxes could be raised by 6 percent, but no formal plans are in the works.
Board members said they would like to see construction begin in the spring of 1999.
