Austintown Local Schools wants a new 90,000-square-foot wellness center. Here’s where it will likely go

Austintown Local Schools board members are seeking qualified designers to plan a new 90,000-square-foot indoor recreation and wellness facility, school officials told Mahoning Matters on Monday.

The facility won’t just be for sports clubs. Athletics will be “just a small piece of it,” said district Treasurer Blaise Karlovic.

It would also provide space for all the schools extracurricular activities and student groups, for whom the district has already set aside funding.

“We have a special education population that needs space to do things like for orientation. And mobility-wise, we have occupational and physical therapy needs,” he said. “We have a student population that isn’t involved in athletics, but they like intramurals and they may want to do a kickball league during their study halls or lunch breaks.”

Karlovic said Austintown students currently don’t have any room to “stretch out.” This new indoor facility will give all students a chance to feel included within the district.

“It [will] accommodate the needs of everyone,” he said. “Not just certain teams, organizations or groups.”

Karlovic said board members want to keep the project’s total cost between $10 million and $14 million. He said the board is now starting to receive proposals.

Board members have yet to decide on a location, but Karlovic said it will be placed somewhere close to the football field and high school, 4560 Falcon Drive.

“We would like to have discussions with architects about the design phase and meet with our staff and students to see what their primary focus would be for a facility like this,” he said. “We want to ensure that the budget could be met because if it’s something that won’t be able to be worked into the budget, then it won’t be considered within the scope [of the project].”

The district requested qualifications last month, according to a public notice.

Karlovic said the board has received design proposals from local and regional architects. The board is currently working through those and has yet to start the interview process, he said.

“We’re interviewing all the local architects that have made a request and we’re gonna take a look at [local companies] primarily and probably look at a couple from Cleveland as well,” he said.

This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 5:00 AM.