The New Boston School Board will meet with the newly appointed director of the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC) during its regular meeting tonight to discuss plans for the new school building, and discuss its construction bidding process.

Rich Murray was appointed to the OSCF in September, after having been recommended by Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland. He will be at the school board meeting tonight to discuss progress and concerns regarding the new school construction — the cost of which OSFC is paying 83 percent. The OSFC also appoints a project manager to work with each developing school district.

“The concerns are, it’s recently been determined that given where we’re building there we’re going to have to build a retaining wall because of the hill,” New Boston School Board President Joe McGraw. “We’re trying to disturb as little of that hill as we can.”

He said the OSFC was concerned about the cost and safety of the wall.

“They’re building this new building to last 50 to 75 years and they want to make sure that wall is going to do its job for that length of time,” McGraw said.

The new school, costing about $20 million, will be built at the site of the former Sun and Funland Pool, in New Boston. The land was purchased in Oct. 2008 for about $24,000, and the school began clearing the land last week.

The school board also will discuss its options of what type of bidding to accept; either a project labor agreement (PLA) or a model bidder’s criteria. McGraw explains that under either agreement the school could accept bids from union and non-union contractors. If the school chooses a PLA, the selected contractors would have to be union members before they begin the project; and if the school chooses a model bidder’s criteria, the contractor would not.

McGraw stressed that a model bidder’s criteria would not automatically mean the contractor would not be union, only that it would not be required of them. Under either plan, the school would open the project for bidding and the contractor would be chosen based on their submitted bid.

“Some of the school board members are very concerned about building this with local labor. We don’t want some of the things that have happened in the past in our community, with out-of-town labor coming in and taking the payroll dollars and the profit dollars out of our community. And with the national economic conditions being what they are, there has been a trend of more out- of-state, or out-of-the-area, bidders approaching on these jobs,” McGraw said.

The school board hopes to begin accepting bids in January, and plans a formal groundbreaking in the spring of 2010.

“I would like to invite anyone that is a taxpayer in New Boston, anyone that has children, grandchildren, or anyone that would consider them a stakeholder in the Village of New Boston or its school system to attend this meeting and listen and feel free to voice their concern in an organized format,” McGraw said.

The New Boston School Board meets in the library at Glenwood High School, in New Boston, at 6:30 p.m.

RYAN SCOTT OTTNEY can be reached at (740) 353-3101, ext. 235, or e-mail pdtwriter@ryanscottottney.com.