Firelands debates plans for bus garage, field house, future schools

SOUTH AMHERST — A new bus garage and district office are top priorities as the Firelands Board of Education tries to map out the future of its Vermilion Road campus. As part of the district's master planning process, elected officials debated options Monday for how they could someday soon fit both facilities to the east of the new Firelands High School, which will open in August. The entire school system is preparing to go through an evolution this summer. Not only is it preparing to open the $23 million high school, but teachers are also getting ready to vacate the old South Amherst Middle School on Route 113. They'll be moving into the old high school in nearby Henrietta Township, which is being retrofitted for middle schoolers. "It will be new for everybody," Superintendent Mike Von Gunten said. There will be open houses for the families of Firelands' roughly 1,000 students in grades six to 12, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the brand-new high school is being planned for 5-6:30 p.m. Aug. 31 so the general public can see the building, too. Changes and additions to the Vermilion Road property will continue for years to come. The board has discussed multiple maps that show how a field house, parking, practice fields and transportation offices could all be placed. Tentative plans to someday tear down the old Firelands Elementary School on the south side of the property and construct another school on the north side are informing how the puzzle will fit together, said board President Mike O'Keefe. Practical considerations are steering that vision. "We need a bus garage way before we tear down the elementary school," he said. It's Firelands' top priority, he said. No budget, concept drawings or engineering have been greenlighted yet, but the board is looking at putting the transportation hub's footprint just to the northeast of Falcons Stadium. A field house for football, soccer, baseball, softball, and track and field teams is also in the works. O'Keefe said it's being planned in two phases — locker rooms and restrooms first, and an indoor turf field second. "We're looking at getting prices now," he said, estimating the price at between $500,000 and $1.2 million, based on pre-pandemic numbers. Board member Ellen Gunderson pressed on how the setup would be built out, and whether previous boards had attempted to sell naming rights to athletic facilities. She was particularly concerned with the traffic pattern as students walk back and forth to athletic facilities. For now, O'Keefe said the focus isn't on the details, but on a general plan for where buildings should go, and how to best spread out facilities to avoid clutter. "I know it's a living thing and ideas are going to come up," he said. Preserving the past The Firelands Endowment Fund has approved $90,000 toward the creation of an outdoor classroom and alumni wall, Von Gunten reported. The idea is to create a semicircular courtyard half-ringed with a 60-foot-long stone bench that can seat 30 to 35 students, he said. The outdoor learning space could also be used for community get-togethers, and will have lighting and power. While a design has yet to be finalized, the alumni wall will have inset screens to display class photos and other digitized images from not only the district's past, but also the former South Amherst Schools. The districts were merged in 1988. Von Gunten said he's been in contact with the South Amherst High School Alumni Association and South Amherst Historical Society about taking trophies, old uniforms, photos and other relics to preserve. Many of those items have been on display or in storage for years at South Amherst Middle School, but will need a new home when the 112-year-old building closes this summer. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.