By John Hilber

The Twinsburg City School District could be on the cusp of a huge change.

Residents could soon see the creation of a new school, renovated and relocated sports fields and two unique parks.

But to fund the plan, a $97 million bond will be on ballots May 6 as Issue 11. If passed, the school district estimates that a property owner would pay about $135 per $100,000 of appraised property value per year.

The plan cannot go forward without voter approval; if the bond passes, construction would be slated to finish for the 2028-29 school year. 

If the bond is not passed in May, Twinsburg Superintendent Kathi Powers predicts the school board would give it another go on the ballot and listen to the community because “they would like this building to be built.”

The district is calling this plan the Tiger Legacy Project. 

“The primary focus of the plan is the replacement of three schools – Wilcox, Bissell and Dodge – with a modern, consolidated facility,” said Rhonda Crawford, school board president. “This new school will feature state-of-the-art resources, including enhanced security measures for younger students. Additionally, renovations will be made to Tiger Stadium and Hoon Softball Field to maintain safe and functional athletic spaces for our students.”

The school district put forth a different bond on 2024’s November ballot, which did not pass. The school district then revised its plan, dropping the price of the project from $107 million to the current $97 million.

“When we lost the election in November, I teasingly say we were all depressed for a minute,” Powers said. “That gave us a period of time to reflect on what everybody said.”

In the November version of the plan, the football field for Twinsburg High School was going to be moved, but the community had concerns about the location of the move, which was going to be close to a wastewater treatment plant.

Since the concerns were heard by the school district, the plan to move the stadium was nixed, which could lead to repairing it in its current spot and potentially going through with a land swap agreement with the city of Twinsburg.

The Tiger Legacy Project has grown and changed since initial plans began in 2016.

Powers said, in the early stages, the only school that was going to be replaced was George G. Dodge Intermediate School, located at 10225 Ravenna Rd. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the district to put its plans on hold. The project ultimately became larger, as a 2024 report suggested a drastic change.

The report, which was spearheaded by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, is an assessment of the district’s facilities. The report found four of the five schools in the Twinsburg School District needed renovations that were “approaching or exceeding 66% of the cost to build new facilities,” according to the TCSD website.

The school district decided to follow the OFCC’s “2/3" rule, forming a plan to create a new school instead of maintaining and repairing old schools.

The plan that is going forward on the May 6 ballot has many parts, including the demolition of existing schools, the formation of a new school and the renovation and relocation of some athletics fields.

The largest portion of the plan would be the construction of a new PK-6 elementary school.

The new school would replace three existing schools in the district, which include Wilcox Primary School (houses pre-k, kindergarten and 1st grade and is located at 9198 Darrow Rd.), Samuel Bissell Elementary School (houses 2nd and 3rd grade and is located at 1811 Glenwood Dr.) and George G. Dodge Intermediate School (houses grades 4-6).

Under the plan, all grades from pre-k to 6th would be housed in the same building, broken up into four sections. The building would be relocated between Ravenna and Chamberlin roads through a land swap with the city of Twinsburg.

The idea was first suggested by former Twinsburg Mayor Ted Yates prior to the pandemic. The land that would be used for the construction of the new school in the current plan would be provided by the city of Twinsburg, while the city would get some of the school campus land. The land swap does not need to be approved by voters on the May ballot.

The district wants to build a new school because of the amount and cost of the problems with the existing buildings. Powers said this includes issues like classroom size, HVAC issues and windows.

A new school could also be designed to provide more in the areas of security.

“The first thing we are always concerned about is school safety, and the fact is you would have to spend quite a significant amount of money to be able to put in all the safety features we would like to put in,” Powers said. “First and foremost, I am looking to add a layer of security that we do not currently have.”

Powers cited inspiration from a nearby school that has a security system in place that requires passage of two separate portals and three doorways to enter the school.

She also highlighted the opportunity to design new learning spaces.

“Flexible spaces to learn are really important,” Powers said. “The old model of a teacher in front of the class and kids sitting in rows – it is not how they learn best. I’m so interested in being able to allow the design of learning spaces that are flexible, give students opportunities to learn in the ways that meet their learning style and the introduction of greater technologies as they become available.”

The belief is that students would be in the new school for the 2028-29 school year if the bond passes in May.

Another large part of the project would include the upkeep and relocation of some of the school district’s athletics fields.

The operation that would cost the most money is the renovation of Tiger Stadium, the school’s multi-purpose field that primarily hosts football and track.

The track and the turf on the field need a total replacement due to water accumulation under the top surface.

Baseball fields for the district would be moved. The Junior Varsity/9th grade baseball field would be moved to the front lawn of R. B. Chamberlin Middle School from its current location on the Twinsburg High School campus. The Varsity Baseball Field then would be moved to the spot the Junior Varsity Baseball Field is currently. The Hoon Softball Field would also receive updates in its current location.

Finally, the boys’ practice soccer field would remain in its place, while the girls’ practice soccer field would relocate to the R. B. Chamberlin campus.

The final part of the plan would include a new park located at the spot where Bissell Elementary School is located and a different one where Wilcox Primary School is located.

In Bissell’s spot, a nature-centered park would be created with multiple trails, meadows, native plants, an exploratory station and an amphitheater, just to name a few ideas outlined by the TCSD.

At the Wilcox property, construction of a fitness-related space is the main plan.

“It's about the size of a tennis court,” Powers said. “Half of it is meant for yoga, dance and stationary exercise. The other half would have parkour equipment. The back of that property at Wilcox would have the erection of an ADA-compliant playground.”

The upkeep of these parks would be the responsibility of the TCSD, as the city would only get the land at the George G. Dodge Intermediate School in the land swap. The school district would remain the owners of the Bissell and Wilcox properties, and the cost that would be needed to upkeep the parks would be budgeted for with existing funds and would not be part of the bond on the May ballot.

The total for the new school and the renovated and relocated athletics fields would come out to $97 million. The largest financial commitment would be the building of the new PK-6 school, which would come out to over $86 million.

The other operations coming in at over $1 million would be the renovation of Tiger Stadium ($4.5 million) and the potential relocation of the Varsity Baseball Field ($1.5 million).

The TCSD would receive, if the bond passes, a 17% contribution from the OFCC on a capital building project.

The contribution, which would shake out to about $15 million, is a partnership authorized by the board of education to benefit the TCSD.

“This plan offers several key benefits to the community,” Crawford said. “A new PK-6 elementary school to replace outdated facilities, safer and more secure buildings for students and staff, upgraded athletic facilities designed to support student success and a smart financial decision, as constructing new schools is more cost-effective than renovating existing structures.”

In between the November ballot and the May ballot, Powers and the Twinsburg school board listened to the community and its concerns.

“They were concerned about traffic, and they were concerned about moving athletic fields on the Dodge property because of the wastewater treatment plant,” Powers said. “In this redo, we were able to reduce the cost for our residents.”

Traffic is still a large concern for people even after revisions to the November ballot. In a YouTube live-stream that posted March 6, conversations about potential traffic jams arose.

“When you’re taking three schools and putting them into one area,” an audience member asked, “what does that do to the traffic with one entrance [into the new school]?”

The leaders of the conversation said students would enter the school in waves so not every student would enter the school at once, ensuring there is not a traffic jam on the entrance of the potential school.

Another large concern still relevant to the production of the new school is the ecological impact. 

The new school would be built in an area where the land is dug up and cleared out.

“You guys are cutting down 25 acres of trees – what is your plan to replace that?” another audience member asked in the same conversation.

It was explained minutes later that the potential park that would be built on the Bissell Elementary School land would include relocated trees from the land where the proposed new school would be built.

Even with the concerns on the table for the TCSD, the district is still going all in on the ballot this May. For Powers, the ballot is going to be crucial to the community and the school district for two reasons.

“It’s a partnership with the city, which was not a part of the effort on the November ballot issue,” she said. “Second to that is, when the November ballot issue failed, we listened and we recreated this project to be responsive to what we heard – and that’s a big deal.”