Willow Wood – If all goes to plan, Symmes Valley High School students could be using a new library and other additions by next fall.

Tuesday, January 29, 2002

Willow Wood – If all goes to plan, Symmes Valley High School students could be using a new library and other additions by next fall.

Superintendent Tom Ben said bids are being accepted by the construction manager for an addition and renovation project at the high school. Ben said the bids are scheduled to open at 1 p.m. Feb. 20.

"Then, we hope, everything will be completed with the bidder," Ben said. He hopes the project will go to construction by mid to late March and, if everything goes as planned, the construction will be completed by October.

During the 2000 November General Election, citizens in the school district passed a 23-year, half-million dollar maintenance levy required by the state. Ben previously stated that the levy secured $3.6 million for the addition and renovation.

Ben explained the construction project will add five new classrooms, a technology center, a new principal’s and guidance office, a new kitchen and a new library. He said that with the addition of a new kitchen located at one end of the school, plans are being made to convert some of the existing rooms into a new dining room and a new technology lab for the vocational agriculture program.

The room that currently serves as the cafeteria will be converted into a technology lab for the vo-ag program. In a previous interview, Ben said that technology in the agri-industry has rapidly increased and students in the program need to have the ability to learn to work with the new technology. By building labs for the program the school hopes to increase the vo-ag services it offers students.

Ben also said the new library will be the focus of the project. The current library is housed on the second floor of the school and, Ben said, has become obsolete.

"Academically speaking," Ben said, "the library should be the center of the school…a library just isn’t a place to store books."

The new facility will be a 16,000 square-foot addition to the school and will be built on the first floor. The new facility will contain a multimedia center, computer facilities, meeting rooms, office space and a lecture hall-type classroom. The new library will also house technology that will be needed to add and expand video conference capabilities and other high-technology programs that may come to the school.

Ben said although the administration is working on projects and making adjustments for the next school year.

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