OTTAWA ELEMENTARY LOCATION DETERMINED - Kevin Brinkman, Superintendent

At the August School Board meeting, the Ottawa-Glandorf Board of Education took another step in proceeding with the construction of two new elementary buildings by approving a resolution to have a Bond Issue and a one-half mill Permanent Improvement Levy placed on the November Ballot. In order to receive approximately $20,000,000 from the State, district residents must approve a 2.17 mill levy which will generate $6,000,000 as part of our local share. This bond issue will not increase taxes. For an explanation of how this levy will be collected, please refer to the last edition of the Titan Tradition. If you need a new copy of this edition, you can download it off our website at og.noacsc.org or call our office at 419-523-5261. We already approved a Bond Issue in 2002 to remodel the High School and this amount is counted towards our 51% of the total project, therefore reducing the amount needed for our required local share.

Also approved at the August meeting was the location for the Ottawa Elementary building. The new location for the Ottawa building will be 15 acres of land located on Putnam Parkway next to the YMCA and Educational Service Center. After exploring other sites within the Village of Ottawa, this site was chosen for its proximity to the High School, YMCA, and Educational Service Center. This site is also out of Flood Zone A. We feel this will be an excellent location for the new elementary school and will enhance the educational opportunities for our students.

One major aspect we considered in moving the location of Ottawa Elementary from the Fourth Street location to Putnam Parkway is the change in transporting students to and from school. O-G Schools currently do not transport students (with the exception of Kindergarten) that reside in-between the railroad tracks and from Second Street to Eleventh Street. With the new location, we would be required to transport students living in these areas. Since we already have buses assigned to these streets to transport kindergarten students, we would simply add the other students to these already assigned routes with very little increase in cost. The additional riders would also increase the reimbursement from the state for transportation due to the increase in ridership. The net increase cost for transportation would be very minimal.

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