By Sue Kiesewetter
Enquirer contributor

This is the second in a series of stories previewing the Feb. 4 special election.

NORWOOD - Every child in the Norwood Schools would attend class in a new or renovated building within four years if voters approve an 8.93-mil bond issue Feb. 4.

The $54.9 million project would pay for:

• Implementation of a master facilities plan that calls for the razing of Allison and Williams elementary schools.

• Renovating and reclaiming North Norwood, which is now leased.

• Closing the Sharpsburg campus.

• Renovating the high school.

• Rebuilding a portion of the middle school.

The owner of a $100,000 house would pay an additional $172 annually in new taxes for the next 28 years if the bond issue were approved, said Treasurer Cary Furniss.

"Our buildings are in need," said parent Michael Gabbard, a 1983 Norwood High graduate who is co-chairing the levy effort. "We can either put duct tape on them ... or bring them up to date. Until that happens we're always going to be a step behind."

Mr. Gabbard said the 37 percent state reimbursement the district is expected to receive in 2008 coupled with low interest rates makes this an opportune time to undertake such a massive project.

But opponents question why the money is needed just three years after the district spent more than $8 million over four years to repair schools. Both Citizens For A Better Norwood and Norwood COAST - Citizens Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes - have mounted campaigns against the bond issue.

"They (school officials) put up signs in 1999 saying what work they had done as promised," said Norwood graduate Rene Dierker."Three years later in 2002 they want to tear down two buildings they renovated. ... To me that's a horrendous waste of the taxpayers' money."

Superintendent Barbara Rider said the improvements made from 1995 to 1999 were used to catch up on repairs that had been put aside during the schools' fiscal crisis after the 1988 closing of the General Motors plant. That work didn't make all buildings handicap accessible or address the mechanical systems in each building, she said.

The Ohio School Facilities Commission, which approved Norwood's plan, wasn't created until 1997. And the Expedited Local Partnership Program, which Norwood entered to lock in its state reimbursement rate, didn't begin until 1999, Ms. Rider said.

"This (project) is to position ourselves for the future with two new buildings and renovations of the other four," Ms. Rider said.

Sonja Simpson, a 1974 Norwood graduate, said the district doesn't need new schools and believes the schools, which date back to 1896, should be preserved. "I have absolutely no faith in this administration in its management," said Ms. Simpson, a Norwood COAST member. "I didn't like the two community dialogues. No one was allowed to speak."

"We are not a Hyde Park. We are not an Indian Hill. We are a blue-collar community but we pass school levies," Ms. Simpson said. "We are not a community experiencing population growth that needs new buildings."

Norwood has 2,852 students, down 55 students from last year.

E-mail suek@infi.net