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Mr. Russell A. Chaboudy
Superintendent |
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Russell Chaboudy
Superintendent
The new school year is underway, and I hope it has been a great start for your family. Many changes took place over the summer, and we are very excited about the results. Our district has gotten a little smaller by closing a building and more efficient by reducing cost through energy savings as well as leasing out the former Lakeview Elementary School to the Summit County Educational Service Center. We believe our district realignment is good for our students and staff and will help us maintain a level of academic excellence that we now expect each year. For the second year in a row, our district has received a rating of “Excellent” by the Ohio Department of Education. We should all be very proud of this designation!
The renovation of the high school was a huge success, and based on the comments and feedback we received at the community open house, this project was a huge plus for our district. I would like to thank the Coventry Local School Board of Education for their forward thinking in making this major change possible. The old bowling ally has been transformed into sixteen classrooms, a large computer lab as well as a new media center. The Barberton City Schools sold us used furniture at the fair market value allowing us to save thousands of dollars on furniture while filling each classroom in our new addition. The furniture we received was in very nice condition and will serve us well for years to come. This renovation project allowed us to move the ninth graders into the high school building and shift other grades around paving the way to close the Lakeview building, which was becoming difficult to maintain as a full time elementary building. Closing Lakeview will result in savings for the district. The extent of those savings will be determined at the end of the year. A significant impact on the district will result from the leasing of this property. The Summit County Educational Service Center has created an alternative school on this location called the ATM School. This school will house a small number of students from all over Summit County. The purpose of the school is to assist students that are experiencing unusual behavioral issues in the normal school setting and work with them to enable their return back to the regular classroom setting. The Summit County Educational Service Center is responsible for a lease payment and utilities helping to offset the cost of renovation of the high school.
The closing of Lakeview has also allowed us to fill some positions that were cut several years ago. By transferring positions at Lakeview, we have been able to address several areas of concern in our custodial, cook and secretary positions without any additional cost to the district. The retirement of several long time staff members has also resulted in a savings as those positions were filled with a new staff member at a much lower rate than those who retired. The district will also be cutting cost by replacing an outdated lighting system in the Middle School and Erwine gymnasiums as well as at the Portage Lakes Fitness Center. A rebate program offered by First Energy will offset any cost of replacing these lights and the district will see a huge energy savings over time. A new field house will soon be a reality at our stadium thanks to a large donation by our booster club and additional funds donated by our Alumni football team. Utilizing pay-to-participate funds from our athletic teams, a beautiful banner has been placed in the end zone of our stadium and major repairs to our bleachers and the fencing around the bleachers has been completed. The University of Akron has donated football lockers from the old Rubber Bowl, and they fit beautifully into the field house. The field house should benefit not only our football team but boys’ and girl’ soccer and both of our track teams as well. The band boosters will also benefit from a concession stand in the field house and restroom facilities will also be available during fall and spring activities.
I would like to thank all of our employees for all their support in making this entire project a success. Every one of our employees was impacted by the moves we made this summer, including the staff at Turkeyfoot, which had to prepare for the new All-Day Kindergarten program that started this year. A special thanks goes out to our maintenance crew, the building custodians, the district cooks and our bus drivers who all handled the changes and challenges with patience and understanding and did a great job under some trying situations. The timeframe to make things happen was very limited and the construction and road closures created some difficulty, but our employees did an outstanding job working around these obstacles.
Thank you for all your continued support and we look forward to another great year here in the Coventry Local Schools.
Go Comets!