Westerville City School District proposes narrowing Longfellow renovations to free bond funds for HVAC work and finish at South High

District staff told the school board that they plan to scale back the planned Longfellow Elementary renovation and reallocate remaining bond funds and interest to pay for HVAC (HBAC) projects and additional work at Westerville South High School.

A district facilities staff member described Longfellow — "opened in 1931. It is a beautiful building," — and said the school now houses the district’s federally required "best of both worlds" program and related services rather than K–5 classrooms. Because the building’s day-to-day use is lighter, staff proposed removing some large elements from the original scope, including an elevator and broad student-furniture replacements, and narrowing the work to exterior brick repairs (chimney and facade), brick cleaning and sealing, targeted HVAC work, and asphalt and parking improvements.

Why it matters: staff said narrowing Longfellow’s scope would reduce the project budget significantly and allow the district to consolidate remaining bond funds and interest for higher-priority HBAC/HVAC projects across the district. "We're estimating... about $372,000 of work that needs to be completed there," the facilities staff member told the board; another participant said roughly $683,000 could be reallocated if the scope is amended.

Board members who spoke at the meeting generally supported the approach. Several cited safety and operational benefits of repurposing underused spaces at Longfellow and of finishing South’s remaining programmatic work. "It makes a lot of sense why the work that had been identified previously when the use was going to be very different... we would scale back on that and put those funds elsewhere," one board member said.

Westerville South renovations and priorities District staff reviewed the Westerville South High School renovation, which was COPS-funded and completed in six phases. Staff said the project addressed most originally planned programmatic scope but left about 8,000 square feet of original space that still needs work; life-safety upgrades such as fire alarm system completion are scheduled for early summer when students are not in the building.

Staff presented conceptual ideas for finishing South—upgrading the front and theater lobbies to match other commons spaces, removing some lower drop ceilings to reveal higher volumes, creating a school store and a centralized curriculum storage and receiving area behind the auxiliary gym to improve safety and operations. Staff stressed these designs are conceptual and would require an RFQ for architects/engineers and a formal design process before work begins.

Funding mechanics and state credits The facilities staff reviewed how district capital funding works: limited general fund uses (design services, small items), the Permanent Improvement (PI) fund established after a 2019 ask, COPS financing, and bond funds. Staff said the district’s 2019 agreement with the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) and participation in the expedited local partnership program allowed the district to earn credits that may be applied when it becomes CFAP-eligible. Staff estimated the district has about $25 million in credits and noted OFCC typically covers roughly $0.35 on the dollar for qualifying work that follows the Ohio school design manual. Staff cautioned the OFCC is prescriptive about covered work and not every item will qualify.

Procurement and next steps Staff told the board that the FY26 HVAC bid will be presented to the board and that the RFQ for architectural and construction management services will follow; staff estimated the earliest the board would see RFQ-related approvals is about four months from the time of the meeting because of posting and formal opening timelines. Work that is disruptive to instruction (hallway painting, heavy demolition) would be scheduled during breaks or summer; some less disruptive work in non–high-flow student areas may be staged during the school year if spaces can be secured.

What’s next: staff said they will return to the board with action items in the coming month, including the FY26 HVAC bid and refined scopes for Longfellow and South. The board will review RFQ responses and make approvals along the design and procurement path.

Key quote: "When you look at [Longfellow] in this picture, it looks huge. It actually has six classrooms. It has no gymnasium, no cafeteria," the facilities staff member said, arguing that the building’s present use supports a reduced renovation scope.

The board did not take a formal vote at the meeting; staff framed the session as guidance-seeking and said detailed action items will be brought back for formal consideration.