Dublin schools pitches high school expansion as 'short-term' solution to student growth

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DUBLIN, Ohio (WCMH) -- Dublin City Schools is exploring a "short-term" solution to boost capacity by expanding an existing high school, after the district paused another proposal to buy a Cardinal Health building for $37 million.

Superintendent John Marschhausen announced during a Monday board of education meeting that the district is pursuing a 60,000-square-foot addition to Dublin Scioto High School. The superintendent said the expansion would allow the district to shift 500 to 600 students to Scioto, helping alleviate an anticipated increase in high school enrollment throughout the next decade.

"Our enrollment projections indicate, by moderate projection, that we'll have 2,000 new high school students by 2034," said Marschhausen at the meeting. "We're still going to need room for about 1,500 additional students by 2034. But, this is the short-term solution."

Marschhausen stressed that the expansion would not require additional levy dollars from the Dublin community, and would also aid in balancing enrollment between the district's three existing high schools. When at capacity, Scioto currently is home to about 1,400 students, while Dublin Coffman serves 2,000 and Dublin Jerome has 2,400.

Dublin schools aims to break ground on the Scioto addition next summer, with a targeted opening for August 2026. As the expansion takes shape, the district said it will announce new boundaries for elementary and middle schools by the end of this year. New high school boundaries will be published in the fall of next year, then implemented for the start of the new school year in 2026.

The Scioto expansion announcement comes after the district said it was pausing a nonbinding agreement with Cardinal Health the buy the 250,000-square-foot west campus headquarters at 7200 Cardinal Place for $37 million. Still, during Monday's meeting, Marschhausen hinted that this proposal could be revived.

"The Cardinal Health building is something that is going to require collaboration and ongoing conversations with our partners at the city and our largest employer and business in Dublin," said Marschhausen. "There is a mutual commitment between the three of us to have these conversations in search of a long-term solution."

Marschhausen paused the Cardinal agreement after the city's planning commission signaled they were unsupportive of the zoning changes needed to repurpose the building. Dublin schools had entered into the purchase agreement earlier this year, which allowed the district more than a year to determine if the building can be effectively configured to serve as a school.

However, the Dublin Planning and Zoning Commission spoke against the idea during an Aug. 8 meeting and argued that rezoning the site from office to academic use would not align with the city's "Envision Dublin" community plan, which went into effect Aug. 1.

"We are eight days into the plan. To recommend violating the plan, eight days in, after having 18 months of planning where Dublin City Schools was at the table and planning right along with us, I don’t think that would be what the city council is looking for," said Rebecca Call, chair of the planning and zoning commission, during the meeting.

Marschhausen had argued Cardinal's building made the most financial sense given the cost to build a high school would be more than $200 million. The superintendent also noted that the $145 million bond issue and 7.9 mill operating levy that passed last year grants the district the authority to issue another $40 million in debt, which would allow Dublin schools to buy the building "without going back to the voters for additional resources."

However, the city of Dublin noted in a statement that project cost or cost alternatives are not among the criteria that the planning and zoning commission can consider under the city's codified ordinances. The city said it values a strong partnership with Dublin schools and has been actively involved in the process of evaluating the district's options.