Just several months after officially closing West Park Elementary, the Ravenna School District will continue moving forward without using the building by holding a sealed bid auction, which will conclude on Aug. 15 at 10 a.m.
“We were not operating the building at full capacity, with our enrollment dropping over the years,” Superintendent Ben Ribelin told The Weekly Villager on July 31. “There were empty classrooms and we needed to be able to fill our buildings and not have to operate that at such a low capacity.”
The District announced in February that it would officially close West Park Elementary after the end of the 2024-25 school year. It is now nearing the completion of a formal sale, as the District is accepting bids in sealed envelopes that are being delivered to the Board of Education Office. The party which submits the highest bid will be selected as the purchaser.
According to Ribelin, there has been considerable interest in the building as the District has conducted several walkthroughs with interested parties. The building, which opened in 1968 and carries a lot of memories, has been well-maintained.
“We have walked a number of companies and non-profits through as a tour just so they can see it before the auction happens,” he noted. “I don’t know how many will bid on it but we have had a handful that have gone through the building.”
Ribelin also said that the money received from the sale will be used by Ravenna’s Permanent Improvement Fund. Per the Ohio Revised Code, the funds can only be used to cover the costs of building and bus repairs. The money cannot be combined with any money from the District’s general fund.
“We have a good permanent improvement levy that our voters passed several years ago which has helped and we will just continue to add into that and take relief for our general fund from that,” Ribelin said.
With considerable interest from outside parties, Ribelin said that the District’s main priority in closing the building was that it would not just sit as an abandoned building in the community.
“We just want to do what is right for the City and have some productive group whether it is a non-profit or a business to come in and be contributing to the community,” he said.
Ribelin said that for the last 20 years, the District has used West Park Elementary for kindergarten classes. Due to decreasing student enrollment, he added that the District decided the most fiscally responsible thing it could do was close the school.
Although several positions were eliminated, Ribelin said that the District retained several employees moving at least 10 full-time employees into Willard Elementary, which will now teach kindergarten in addition to first and second grade.
Williard will now have five kindergarten classes in addition to kindergarten teachers and teaching aides. With the influx in students, Ribelin said that the District has made some slight renovations to the building, including installing a wall in the library to create two smaller spaces.
Ribelin noted that the District also expanded the driveway into the existing lot owned by the neighboring Ravenna Church of Christ in order to reduce traffic on Summit Road, which gets very busy during drop-offs and pick-ups.
“For the safety of our students and our parents, we are going to redirect traffic in the morning and afternoon to pick up and drop off of Summit Road so that no one has to deal with the 40 MPH speed limit,” he said.
Ribelin said that the District’s decision to close West Park and sell the building will provide immediate fiscal relief, saving approximately $20,000 in utility costs annually.
He acknowledged that the District will miss West Park not just for it practical use but also its historic nature, including the memories that he made during his brief time while serving as West Park’s Principal earlier in his career.
“It is a great building and was a great staff and although it is sad in the moment, it is showing progress in what we can become here as we work through consolidation – not just for our money and for the betterment of our buildings, but so we don’t have to continue to maintain older buildings that are getting more expensive each year,” he said.
