City schools lease P Ross Berry

[northside lurker]

The district worked with the state to forecast future enrollment.  No one foresaw the quick decline.

[AllanY2525]

I could be wrong, but I thought I read somewhere ( it's been a long time ) that there
was grant money that was of the "use it or lose it" variety used for some of this
construction.  As far as looking eight or ten years down the road, the buildings were
built based on the needs at the time those grant funds were available to use.

If there are new ( or nearly new, such as Volney Rogers ) buildings that are vacant,
maybe they could be swapped with other, older buildings in the school system
that are in poorer shape and/or need major repairs.

The newer buildings are bound to be more energy efficient, which would help to
reduce operating expenses versus old buildings.

If Youngstown can get it's sh#t together with the city school system, enrollment might
get better....but with the way things are right now, they've lost a lot of students to
other schools in the area - and will continue to do so.

[jay]

I remember one city councilman saying we need the new schools because the construction will create jobs and the "state" was going to foot most of the bill. 

Now look what we have, excess empty new buildings.

[Billy Mumphrey]

What I don't understand is when the district was first contacted about the possibility of building new buildings, did they not have any reports on what enrollment figures would be 5-10 years down the road? Could they have not built less buildings and saved the taxpayers money in the long run?

[jay]

On the west side, Volney Rogers School is now vacant.  This building is only a few years old.
What a waste of our tax dollars.

[Billy Mumphrey]

Seems like the city schools are getting very little in compensation for a school built on the back of taxpayers through that large levy.
http://www.vindy.com/news/2013/nov/26/city-district-leases-p-ross-berry/?nw