Calendar year 2020 began and ended with Yellow Springs school district leaders discussing identified structural needs in the local school buildings and how to address them, but the majority of the year was occupied by the district’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning amid COVID
Gov. Mike DeWine was at the forefront in national responses to the novel coronavirus pandemic when in March he temporarily shuttered businesses and activities in Ohio, including all K–12 schools, to help curtail spread of the disease.
DeWine announced the school closures Thursday, March 12, effective at the end of the school day Monday, March 16, and initially set the return date for Monday, April 6. In Yellow Springs, one of those three weeks was already designated as the district’s annual spring break, and so teachers and administrators used the four days between the governor’s announcement and the shutdown to prepare two weeks worth of remote-learning and study materials. Teachers set up
Nationally known comedian and local resident Dave Chappelle is purchasing the former Miami Township fire station with plans to open a comedy club.
The Yellow Springs Development Corporation, or YSDC, disclosed the buyer of the fire station this week after originally approving the purchase in September.
Chappelle’s company, Iron Table Holdings, will renovate the longtime fire station at 225 Corry St. into a comedy club featuring both a performance space and restaurant, according to plans shared by the YSDC. The venue’s capacity is estimated at 140 people, and patios are slated for the property along Corry Street and the Little Miami Scenic Trail.
Yellow Springs School District leaders anticipate a $30 million price tag, at minimum, to upgrade the district’s buildings, whether those improvements take the form of new construction or major renovations.
The amount, presented during a school board work session Saturday morning, Nov. 21, is similar to projected total costs, ranging from about $27 million to $31 million, listed when the district began an active push in 2017 to address identified facility needs at its two campuses.
“Now we’re almost four years further down the road,” Superintendent Terri Holden told the board. “Where do we go from here?”
The facilities issue isn’t going away, board President Steve Conn said at the start of the meeting, which was conducted online and streamed on the district’s YouTube Channel.