Pataskala presentation outlines $115 million school bond, new middle school and YMCA-partnered community center

Casey Perkins, identified in the meeting record as superintendent of Southwood Cooking, told Pataskala City Council members that the school district will ask voters in May to approve a roughly $115 million bond to pay for a new middle school, an expansion of the high school campus and a planned YMCA-operated community center the district calls the “Sphere.”

Perkins said the proposal would keep elementary schools at kindergarten through fourth grade, build a new school for fifth and sixth grades, convert the current middle school into a junior high for grades seven and eight, and expand the high school to increase capacity. The district described the new middle school as designed to serve about 1,200 students and said the high school addition would raise capacity into the 1,600–1,700 range. New parking on the high school campus was described as providing…