West Geauga board reviews conceptual plans for new middle/high school and field house; parents raise concerns about gym and field loss

Abby Ranieri, a project lead from GPD, presented conceptual campus plans to the West Geauga Local Board of Education that show a new combined middle and high school sited where current practice fields are located and a possible standalone field house if voters approve a May 6 bond issue. Ranieri said the district could begin design in the spring or summer after a successful vote, with roughly 12–15 months for design and about two years for construction, putting a potential opening in the fall of 2028.

The plans Ranieri showed depict two academic wings flanking a central secure entry — the top wing proposed as a two-story middle school “school-within-a-school” and the bottom wing as a two-story high school wing. Dining and auditorium spaces are shown centrally so they can serve either school, and the design team sketched options to provide distinct entries or a single secure vestibule controlled during the school day. Ranieri emphasized the renderings are conceptual and that GPD would “really start fresh in the design process should the bond issue pass and should we move forward with this project,” adding that community and staff feedback will shape exterior materials, circulation, parking and interior adjacencies.

The board and designers discussed the field house placement and whether it should be attached to the main building or remain separate. Ranieri said both are possible: the field house could be integrated into the building “if it needed to” or sited separately depending on programmatic, circulation and construction tradeoffs. On the question of minimizing disruption to current students, Ranieri confirmed construction would occur first and students would remain in existing buildings until the new facility was ready to receive them.

Why this matters: the conceptual plan would replace multiple existing buildings and outdoor spaces on the West Geauga campus and could change the district’s inventory of indoor gyms, practice fields and playgrounds. Parents at the meeting said those changes could affect youth sports, community use and everyday access to recreation.

Katie Davis, a resident and parent, urged the district to prioritize youth-sports facilities in the design phase. Davis said she believes current gyms and fields at Westwood, Lindsay and the high school may be reduced under the concept, citing an external calculation that the proposed field house might be about 16,000 square feet and that the plan appears to consolidate several indoor gyms. “If we could somehow at least keep the amount of fields we have going forward, or hopefully improve them,” Davis said, asking for answers about gym count, field count, playgrounds, parking, and whether community members would be able to use the new field house for adult recreation or booked gym time.

Board members and staff responded that the renderings are preliminary and that decisions about sites of existing buildings (for example whether old elementary sites would be retained, repurposed or sold) have not been made. The board said it will publish the presentation slides and develop FAQs; Ranieri and staff asked for community input on exterior design, site layout, circulation and educational adjacencies. Superintendent/administrative staff indicated that further community outreach and staff involvement will be built into the design phase.

Votes at a glance: The board also handled routine business and approved a series of resolutions and contracts during the meeting. Items included approval of financial statements, routine personnel actions, MOUs for College Credit Plus partnerships with Cuyahoga Community College, Lakeland Community College and Kent State, multiple service-contract approvals including a middle-school generator and lighting through purchasing cooperatives, a $1,000,000 transfer from the general fund to capital projects, and authorizations tied to special-education and curriculum services. (See the structured action list in this article’s metadata for individual resolution numbers and roll-call tallies.)

The board reiterated that the master plan visuals are conceptual and encouraged residents with concerns or suggestions about athletic space, playgrounds, parking or circulation to participate in upcoming community input sessions. Ranieri said the district would conduct further design conversations with teachers, building leaders and the broader community if the bond proceeds.

Ending: The board scheduled routine follow up: posting the slides and developing FAQs and continuing outreach; design work would only start after a successful bond vote, with timelines shared by the architects as a planning estimate, not a guaranteed schedule.