The ribbon cutting and grand opening of the new Berkshire all-grade school brought a horde of about 2,000 district residents to the campus Aug. 9.
The ribbon cutting and grand opening of the new Berkshire all-grade school brought a horde of about 2,000 district residents to the campus Aug. 9.
The parking lots around the gigantic building on Claridon Troy Road in Burton Township were packed, as were the spaces at the Kent State University – Geauga campus to the west.
A steady stream of students, parents, former school board members and the curious started arriving well before the 6 p.m. event, milling around at the north entrance – smiling, greeting friends and staring in awe at the massive all-grade school sparkling in the sunshine.
Some of the younger students, anticipating the Aug. 16 first day of school, viewed the structure with trepidation.
“She’s afraid she’ll get lost,” one mother was overheard to say. “I told her that her classrooms are all in one wing — two levels.”
Myriad conversations could be heard until the band marched down the sidewalk and played the National Anthem among other themes and Superintendent John Stoddard took the microphone.
“I’m very proud of this building,” he said, welcoming the hundreds waiting to view the amenities. “A lot of people came together to make this happen.”
He introduced John Manfredi, current Berkshire Schools Board of Education president, who has been driving the school construction forward his entire board career.
Manfredi said a representative from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission was attending the event.
“He paid us the biggest compliment. He said he’d never seen this many people at a ribbon cutting as we have here,” Manfredi said.
He recalled his first meeting 10 years ago with Tracy Jemison, then director of Geauga Growth Partnership and Jarrod Tudor, then dean of Kent State University – Geauga campus, where they discussed the need for a new school.
As a result of that meeting, KSU agreed to a long-term lease of part of the Geauga campus to build an all-grade school, providing funding could be found.
There followed collaboration with the state and legislation that led to Tuesday’s grand opening.
Manfredi said the project would never have gotten off the ground without “our friends from Ledgemont (School District).”
“In 2015, (Superintendent) Julie Ramos called me and asked if we would consider having Ledgemont become part of the Berkshire community,” he said.
He and others worked with John Patterson, who represented Geauga County in the Ohio House of Representatives at the time, to create legislation — H.B. 487 — that would ensure the OFCC’s 55% contribution to the huge project if the two districts were combined through a territory transfer.
Manfredi thanked Sarah LaTourette, also a member of the House of Representatives at the time, with getting funding through the OFCC sooner than expected and OFCC representative Denis Kaplan for his assistance.
“We are giving a big ‘Thank You’ to John Patterson. His name will forever be remembered on the sign by the road,” Manfredi said, adding Patterson pushed that bill until 5:40 p.m. Dec. 30, when the governor finally put his name on it.
“If it had not been signed by the end of the year, this building would not have happened. He wouldn’t let go,” Manfredi said.
District voters approved a 3.65-mill levy for the bond in May 2018 and soon thereafter, the district received financing through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, due to research by Berkshire Treasurer Beth McCaffrey, he said.
“It was the first school in the nation financed through the USDA. Now, we have a loan we can pay back,” Manfredi said.
He also recognized:
- KSU administration for their cooperation;
- Geauga County Commissioner Jim Dvorak for helping create a joint economic development district and being a “very big supporter of the school district”;
- Montville Township Trustee and businessman Jim Marsic for volunteering to teach the diesel technology vocational program planned for the district;
- Berkshire teachers and staff for their patience in the delay moving to the new building, adding “There was no way we could have moved in at Christmastime.”;
- His family for being his biggest fans and his son for taking drone videos of the process;
- And fellow board member Bryan Wadsworth for taking personal time to put out levy signs.
“Bryan had a fetish about putting signs out. Thanks, Bryan, for pushing me,” Manfredi said.
He was especially insistent everybody worked together to get the enormous project to the point of opening one week before the start of school. He held up a picture of a little girl.
“This is why we have worked so hard. It’s a picture of my granddaughter, Callie. She’s 3 years old. We do it for the kids, for the love of our children,” Manfredi said. “Welcome home.”
The patient crowd, including excited children of all ages, flooded into the entrance where numerous personnel waited to help the first-time visitors find their way around the newest school in Geauga County.
When the food trucks arrived, people bought dinners and spread out around the campus on picnic tables, benches and inside the cafeteria, said board member Linda Stone.
The vendors all ran out of food after a while, she said.
Visitors told her the event nurtured a sense of community where people renewed old friendships and made new ones, Stone said.
One goal of the new campus is to create a community center for the entire district, and the opening seemed like a good start, she said.
Even before the ribbon cutting, the school was in use by cheerleaders, the football team and a theater group, Stone said.
Now people have seen the possibilities, more can happen. Momentum transferred from the school to the sports complex under construction east of the school with donations toward its completion being announced at every board meeting.
“The popcorn’s still popping,” Stone said.
