Former Northwood Middle School comes under new ownership

Elyria's former Northwood Middle School has a new owner. Gwendolyn Gilmore, an Elyria resident, bought the former school at auction Monday. She currently runs a nonprofit organization called the Rapha Academy in Lorain that serves over 150 children as a daycare. Northwood was slated to go up for auction after the Elyria Schools' Board of Education voted not to demolish the building last year. Northwood closed this year as the new Northwood Campus opened in the fall. Per Ohio law, Northwood first had to be offered to area charter schools for 60 days. No charter schools chose to jump at the building, so Elyria Schools' put it up for public auction. Gilmore taught at Elyria Schools for over 20 years, retiring in 2015. She and her husband, Richard Gilmore, also pastor the Full Gospel Faith Fellowship Church in Lorain. Exact plans for the building are not fully determined, but "the sky's the limit," Gilmore said, adding they definitely plan to move the daycare center, but have dreams expanding beyond that. "I'm elated," she said. "I'm just overwhelmed right now. My kids all went to school here so it's like 'Wow.' Dreams come true; all things are possible. I feel really good today." Gilmore said it's possible the building will become a charter school down the road, but that she's waiting to see how things work out. "We're expecting great things," she said. "We want to make a positive difference in this community." The Elyria School Board still will have to officially approve the sale. Gilmore met the minimum bid of $400,000 and had to pay 10 percent of that up front. If the school board chose not to approve the sale, the 10 percent would be fully refunded. Gilmore was the only bidder Monday. Former superintendent and building liaison Paul Rigda said there was ample opportunity for others to bid for Northwood, but Gilmore was the only one, so the bid stayed at $400,000. Rigda said having only one bidder was a bit of a surprise, as other groups had taken interest in the building. But he said the whole goal is to bid off the building, so the school district was successful. Finding new owners for the empty or soon-to-be empty buildings is good for Elyria Schools, the buildings and for the community, Rigda said. This isn't the first time Gilmore expressed interest in Northwood Middle School. In November 2018, she addressed the school board at a meeting in hopes of turning the building into a charter school. At the time, Gilmore said her work could complement what Elyria Schools already is doing, and that she wanted to move her facility into her home of Elyria. In 2019, the school district began preparations to either trade or sell some of its old buildings that were originally marked for demolition. Plans to demolish Northwood go back to 2018. Elyria could use dollars that originally were going toward demolition toward construction of the new schools instead. In a trade, the city has already taken three old buildings — Franklin, Oakwood and McKinley elementary schools — while the school got some parcels of land near the new Northwood Campus. Under Ohio law, the school district can choose to trade school buildings with the city without offering them to charter schools first. Crestwood, Prospect and Windsor elementaries also will not be demolished, but have yet to either go up for auction or be traded with the city. Contact Laina Yost at (440) 329-7121 or lyost@chroniclet.com.