Cuyahoga Falls City Schools Community Update – ROAR

Cuyahoga Falls’ new 6-12 campus project has reached an exciting milestone in our building program! The district is hosting an evening Groundbreaking Celebration at Laybourne Track and Field Complex on September 27, 2022. The event featured speakers from local and state governments, the Board of Education, and school district staff and students. Additionally, performances were hosted throughout the evening from the High School Marching Band, A Cappella Choir, M&M’s, Children’s Choir and the ArtSparks TNT and XD Dancers. The celebration will conclude with a fireworks display sponsored by Hammond Construction and ThenDesign Architecture (TDA).

What you can expect to see this fall.

This fall you will see significant activity commence on-site with equipment mobilizing for the early site package. Work will stretch from Bolich Middle School down to Newberry Park. The district, along with our construction manager Hammond Construction, hasdeveloped a detailed site logistics plan for all phases of the building project. Hammond is committed to providing a safe and secure environment for students and staff throughout the building process. Hammond’s safety plan will include proactive measures to segregate construction activities from district operations with both fencing and signage.

Early site package in preparation for building.

The purpose of an early site package is to prepare the building area for construction of the new school. This involves putting up storm water controls, including silt fence and catch basin protection, in order to maintain drainage on-site. Contractors will also remove select trees and grade the soil where the future campus footprint will be constructed. Heavy machinery will be used to strip the topsoil and grade the land. Topsoil will be stockpiled on site for later use in the final grading, and the remainder will be permanently removed. Construction fencing will be placed around the perimeter of the work site for safety and security reasons.

Newberry Elementary School will be abated and demolished during the month of October as a part of the early site development. Since the Newberry farewell event held last September, many community members have expressed an interest in retaining souvenir bricks from the building. To honor this request, the district will provide a pickup area outside the construction fence for community members to take a commemorative brick from the 1956 building. The bricks will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. More details on brick pickup dates and times will be shared at a later date.

An early site package allows the project to get a “head-start” on the building construction. The site will be graded and ready to go so contractors can hit the ground running to begin construction of the building in early spring after winter weather has passed.

Completed design developement from TDA.

TDA has completed the design development submission to be presented to the Board of Education on October 5th for approval. The remainder of the year, the design team will develop the construction documents (blueprints) —the final stage of the design process. During this time, the architect, construction manager and consultants will work through the technical aspects of the project to develop detailed documents that will later be used for bidding to subcontractors in early 2023.

Celebrate the past, present, and future of Cuyahoga Falls.

On a final note, the district will be hosting a communitywide meeting in the high school auditorium during the evening of October 26th. TDA architects will unveil the final design and rendered images of the new 6-12 campus, sharing both interior and exterior views of the building. This day also marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Cuyahoga Falls City Schools. We will honor and recognize the district’s rich history of education from the last 100 years. Please join us for this special evening to celebrate Cuyahoga Falls’ past and future for our students and community.