FOSTORIA, OH (WTOL) - Fostoria City Schools is not only preparing for the upcoming school year, but for a future new school building.
It is still a few years out for Fostoria's new junior high and high school building, but the future construction will still be impact students and staff this school year.
School leaders unveiled the final plans for the new school building to the public at last week's school board meeting. The school will build the 7-12 grade section at the current north parking lot.
The existing gym will remain, but the rest of the 40-year-old current school will be demolished.
Also, the school will add a 14,000-square foot addition to the pre-K-6 building next door.
A bond issue approved by Fostoria voters two year ago, along with funding from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, will help fund the $48 million project. The new classrooms will feature state of the art technology and modern layouts.
"It's all about 21st century skills because it's not just about teaching math, science individually, it's about bringing all of those things together," said Andrew Sprang, superintendent of Fostoria City Schools. "And that's really some of the things we're looking for."
Full construction begins in the spring, but preliminary work of installing temporary drives and construction fences began Monday.
Because the entire north parking lot has been shut down, the school district has implemented a new traffic flow for students and staff for this school year.
"That was important, we wanted to make sure that with the increased traffic, safety is taken into consideration," said Sprang.
Work on the elementary building will be complete for the 2019-2020 school year, and the 7-12 building will move in ready later that school year.
