BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MONTGOMERY -- A new elementary school may be built next to the city's Hopewell Road police and fire complex if Sycamore school district residents approve a tax increase in November.
Sycamore Superintendent Bruce Armstrong entered a tentative agreement Thursdaywith Emery Brothers Limited Partnership, the owners of 16 acres adjacent to Montgomery's new Safety Center and swimming pool.
Sycamore officials plan to use the land for a school to house about 600 students in grades kindergarten through four and playing fields for students and community use.
The school would replace Montgomery Elementary School, a 50-year-old building facing busy Montgomery Road. The site is about a mile north of the old school, at the intersection of Montgomery Road and Hopewell. The decision to keep the school in Montgomery will please residents who feared they would lose their only neighborhood school to a site elsewhere in the district.
Some residents told board members at a recent meeting they wanted the old school renovated.
The board decided against that, citing the high cost to bring the building up to educational standards and to enlarge it enough for a growing enrollment, Mr. Armstrong said. The projected cost to renovate the old school was $6.7 million, Mr. Armstrong said. A new building is projected to cost $7.9 million, plus $400,000 in land expenses after proceeds from the sale of the old school are collected.
Money to pay for the new school would come from two tax increases that residents will vote on in November: a 2.39-mill bond issue to generate $45 million for new construction and improvements to all of the district's schools, and a 5-mill operating levy to raise money for the district's daily expenses.
If the tax increases pass, construction could begin in the summer of 1999, Mr. Armstrong said.
