The Revere Local School District held a community forum at which they unveiled the progress and plans for the new school buildings.

The current plan includes building a new high school and a new Bath Elementary school. The school board also discussed moving the bus garage and making a few improvements to the middle and elementary schools, but they have not finalized those plans. Revere Superintendent Matthew Montgomery elaborated on the timeliness and extension of when everything will happen. Several factors contributed to this time extension, including the the high school’s larger size, the merge of the science and library hallways to the new building and the possible additional fundraising for the sports complex.

  “Bath Elementary will be open at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. We originally thought the high school would be open at the same time. We had a meeting [on September 11]. . . . We talked about timeline. . . . [We] moved the [opening] date to the start of the 2020 school year,” Montgomery said.

Although the board pushed back the deadline, they continue to push to have the school built as soon and as well as it can. Revere High School Principal Phil King discussed the current status of the project.

“Right now [the schools are] still in the development and planning stages. Bath Elementary is further along than the high school simply because of the size and scope of the high school. . . . It will take a while, but if we go too fast and it is not built correctly you cannot go back,” King said.

According Richfield’s mayor Bobbie Beshara, this could not only affect the students and staff attending it, but it could also affect the communities it surrounds. She suggested the possibility of adding a community portion to the new building.

“We put together our wish list, as  Montgomery said, and handed it over to him and the architects. What they are doing now is saying what we want and how much that will cost. . . . We are still in the stages of exploration and if it works out, the numbers aren’t too high and the council agrees to it then it will be a great partnership,” Beshara said.

Over the duration of the project, the board plans to communicate the progress with the community. Jennifer Reese, the Communication Specialist at Revere, shared the different ways to attain information on the school’s progress.

“We have an e-newsletter and a print newsletter that will have articles and information from Mr. Montgomery. I send [information] to the Bath Country Journal, Richfield Times, the West Side Leader and the Akron Beacon Journal. . . . Between the materials that go out and Facebook and Twitter, . . . we definitely plan to communicate [information] and people can always contact me,” Reese said.

The board expressed excitement for the new school and hopes to start construction as soon as they finalize more plans.