It seems Sun and Funland Pool, in New Boston, has seen its last cannonball — when it came ripping through its cinderblock walls Wednesday morning. The land is being cleared by New Boston School in preparation for building a new pre-K through 12 school building.

“This is providing the Ohio School Facilities Commission with a buildable site,” New Boston Superintendent Mike Staggs said. “This is the start of the building process, and we’re getting down, detail-wise, to the final construction. If we have our bids out by January, we’ll be right on schedule. This is starting to be the exciting time.”

Three buildings were removed from the pool site Wednesday. The concrete, in-ground pool will be removed in the spring.

The pool first opened in 1965 and quickly developed a large crack that drained upwards of 30,000 gallons each day. Because of the increased costs of operation, the pool had a short swim season in 2007 and did not open at all in 2008. New Boston School purchased the land on Lakeview Avenue in October 2008 for about $24,000, and passed a 7.61-mill tax levy the following month to build the nearly $20 million building on the site. The local share is only about $3 million, collected from village property taxes. The remaining cost is paid by the Ohio School Facilities Commission.

Architects from Legat and Kingscott unveiled their 3-D renderings of the new school in May. Entering the building, visitors will move through a security vestibule on the first floor. Classrooms for grades Pre-K through 3 are also on the first floor, while grades 4-12 are on the second floor. The average classroom size is 800-square-feet, larger than the 650-square-foot rooms in the current high school building. Some rooms will have optional partitions that can divide them into two rooms, if needed. Early plans showed most classrooms emptied into a central media center. The building also will be handicapped-accessible, with one elevator inside, and all restrooms will have all touchless sink and toilet fixtures.

On the north side of the building is the cafetorium, 800-seat gymnasium, locker room, weight room and music room. Dennis Paben, of Legat and Kingscott, explained the idea was to keep all of the noisy activities away from noisy activities away from classrooms on the south.

Staggs said the official groundbreaking for the new school building project will begin in spring 2010, and the school is expected to be open Aug. 2011.

This will be the first new school building for New Boston since 1907.

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