Dublin schools withdraw from Cardinal Health West Campus purchase; will add Scioto High School addition

The Dublin City School District announced Jan. 27 that it will withdraw from a purchase agreement for the Cardinal Health West Campus building and instead will put an addition on Scioto High School to address rising high school enrollment, John Marshhausen, a district representative, said.

District leaders framed the move as an enrollment-management decision and said it was made in collaboration with the City of Dublin and Cardinal Health. "Even though we've withdrawn from this agreement, it doesn't close the door for potential future agreements between the city, Cardinal Health, and the Dublin City Schools," Marshhausen said.

Marshhausen said the withdrawal was not prompted by a zoning denial. "This decision was not made due to the denial of our application by the city of Dublin's planning and zoning committee. When we went before planning and zoning, that was just a preliminary meeting. There was never an official application to have that facility rezoned," he said.

Instead, the district said it will expand Scioto High School to "balance enrollment within our 3 high school attendance zones and have spaces we move forward to accommodate more students in our district," Marshhausen said. He said the district sought to avoid overbuilding and to use taxpayer dollars responsibly: "We never wanna overbuild. We wanna build right. And as we look at enrollment projections, this is the most responsible option for us with your taxpayer dollars. This option also allows us to handle increasing enrollment without coming to you for additional levy dollars."

The announcement was delivered as an update during the district's Jan. 27 Board of Education meeting; Marshhausen opened the district's "Dublin in the Know" update with the statement. He said the district and its partners had "been meeting multiple times over the past several months to talk about what's next for the building and for the district." The district did not specify whether the Board took a formal recorded vote on the withdrawal during that meeting.

The decision leaves open the possibility of future partnerships involving the City of Dublin and Cardinal Health, Marshhausen said. He closed the update by thanking residents for "your patience, your understanding, and your input" and noting the district's goal to remain "a destination district to be a place that families want to come with their young people."