District Newsletter: 9/11/2026

Reminder!

Monday, Sept. 21 - No Classes for Students & Teachers

Tuesday, Sept. 22 - No Classes for Students; Teacher/Staff Professional Development Day

 

Architects to Hold Community Meetings, Discuss Residents’ Participation in Design of the Proposed New Middle School

After completing its process to select an architect to deliver design services for the proposed new middle school, the Board of Education voted on Sept. 9, to allow the district to enter into contract negotiations with Perkins&Will.

To assist Bexley residents in understanding how the design process would work, Perkins&Will architects will conduct two public information sessions this month. The meetings are also opportunities to give feedback to the architects regarding the possible design process.

You are encouraged to save the date to attend one of the following meetings: Tuesday, Sept. 22 – 6:30 p.m., Cassingham Complex, Schottenstein Theater  Building tours, including the infrastructure and operational equipment, will be offered Wednesday, Sept. 23 – 9:30 a.m., Location to Be Announced

Separately, Bexley Schools will host an information session regarding Issue 5 for community members. Building tours, including the infrastructure and operational equipment, will be offered.

Save the Date: Monday, Sept. 28, 6:30 p.m., Cassingham Complex, High School Library

No design work has been completed for the proposed middle school, and the architects’ design work is dependent upon whether Issue 5 passes and funding for the new building is secured.

The combination of Columbus’s Moody Nolan and Perkins&Will, which is based in Chicago, led Bexley Schools’ facilities assessments, facilities-planning meetings, and developed the district’s final facilities plan.

The team of Perkins&Will and Moody Nolan will collaborate on Bexley’s projects again if Issue 5 is approved. They have worked together on numerous school projects over the past decade, including on more than 1.5 million square feet of educational learning spaces for Grandview Heights, Upper Arlington, and other districts in the Columbus area.

 

Board Approves Statement of Facts for Issue 5 

The Bexley Board of Education approved a Statement of Facts during Wednesday evening’s Board meeting. This document is a recommended step by the Auditor of State when school districts have funding requests on the ballot. This Board-approved information to assist the community follows. 

What Is This Ballot Issue For? 

On Nov. 3, 2026, Bexley voters will consider a funding request for Phase I of Bexley Schools’ long-range facilities plan. The $115 million funding request to address aging facilities and improve the district’s student learning environments will appear on the General Election ballot as Issue 5.  

What Is Included in Phase I? 

Phase I includes four components:

• Construction of a new middle school ($82 million)  

• Essential facility repairs and system upgrades across the district ($24 million)  

• Surface improvements to Maryland and Montrose outdoor spaces, which will not include synthetic turf ($5 million)  

• Stadium improvements and maintenance ($4 million)  

*Funds from any project that is under budget are recommended to go to additional facility repairs.  

Why Is a New Middle School Included? 

Education has changed since the district’s buildings were constructed many decades ago. Today’s educational standards and requirements need different teaching-and-learning spaces than what Bexley’s schools were designed to provide.   

The Cassingham Complex lacks enough classrooms for today’s curriculum offerings and needed support services. Many teachers share classrooms and other faculty members have no assigned classroom but must move their teaching materials on carts from class to class throughout the school day. Additionally, small-group instruction, intervention, student support services, and student project collaboration take place in the hallways or other spaces not meant for instructional purposes.

One of the most visible challenges at the Cassingham Complex is lunch service, where Cassingham Elementary School students commonly eat lunch while seated next to upperclassmen, which is not within educational best practices.  

With high school and elementary students sharing a lunch period, there also is not enough seating to accommodate high school students. As a result, the district maintains an open campus for the high school, allowing students to leave the school and return within the period. Numerous high school students stay on campus but go to the high school hallways, where many eat lunch while seated on the floor.

Space challenges do not end in the cafeteria though. Bexley Middle School’s main first-floor hallway, and similar others throughout the Complex, were not built for today’s student capacity and there are frequent and extreme choke points during class changes. These significant traffic jams are of great concern, especially for students, staff, and visitors who may have limited mobility and use, for example, wheelchairs or crutches, and for anyone who may develop anxiety when in tight and crowded physical spaces.

Together, these conditions illustrate how educational programming and student needs have evolved over time, while the physical layout of the complex has remained largely the same.

The proposed middle school would be located on the Cassingham Complex property. By using nearby space on the property, the current school buildings would remain in use during construction. After construction, some existing middle school space could be repurposed for Bexley High School and Cassingham Elementary, including reallocating classrooms with windows to students and teachers who currently spend much of each school day in interior classrooms without natural light.

The proposed facility would be a standalone, self-contained middle school with its own cafeteria and gym, along with updated accessibility and safety features. It would also provide learning spaces designed around current instructional needs, including STEM labs, hands-on learning, collaborative small-group work and other programming that is difficult to accommodate within the existing middle school building.

What Else Is Included in Phase I?  

Phase I also will fund essential facility repairs and capital upgrades across all schools, including for boilers, windows, roofing, fire alarms, generators, drainage, and HVAC systems. Additional work includes surface improvements at Maryland and Montrose elementary school fields, which would not include synthetic turf, as well as maintenance to the stadium at Carlton Smith Field. Softball and some other athletic practices may shift to Maryland, Montrose or another location if a new middle school is built.

How Would Phase I Be Funded? 

Phase I would be funded by the combination of a 0.5% traditional school district income tax and a 2.05-mills property tax.  

The 2.05 mills of property tax is a no-new-tax-rate request, because current bond payments totaling 2.05 mills are scheduled to expire in 2027, thus offsetting most of the property tax portion.  

Cost to Bexley Residents   

• A home with a county auditor’s appraised/market value of $100,000 would pay approximately $72 per year for the property tax portion. (Essentially a continuation of the effective tax rate from the bond levy approved in 2000)

• A household with $100,000 in all income would pay approximately $500 per year for the income tax portion.

Note: Under Ohio law, Social Security and military benefits are excluded from local school district income tax. An online calculator is available for residents to estimate their cost of this funding request. The calculator can be accessed at bex.fyi/calculator or by scanning the QR code.

What Is the New Middle School Timeline if the Ballot Issue Is Approved? 

What Happens if Issue 5 Is Not Approved? 

There is no zero-cost option when it comes to the district’s existing facility needs. If Issue 5 is not approved, then the new middle school, stadium renovations, and surface improvements would not move forward without future Board action and another funding request, but necessary facility maintenance and repairs costing up to $24 million will still be needed within the next few years. The district’s General Fund (for day-to-day operations) will need to be used for those expenditures.   

At up to $24 million, the sum of essential capital improvement is greater than what the district’s General Fund can support and expending that much money toward required repairs and upgrades would drain the district’s primary source to fund operations. This could result in cuts to student services, programs, and course offerings, and possibly cause staff reductions and increased class sizes. It may also affect the timing of future operating levies.  

The district has regularly invested in maintaining and repairing its facilities, helping extend the useful life of aging buildings and critical operational systems. However, routine maintenance cannot eliminate the eventual need for major repairs or replacement of boilers, windows, roofs and more. If a critical system fails or a needed piece of equipment breaks, then urgent fixes would be needed. A third-party assessment completed in 2024 estimated that up to $146 million in system and equipment repairs, replacements, and maintenance would be needed across the district within 15 years.

By asking for a ballot issue to pay for Phase I, the district is trying to protect the funds now dedicated to students and teachers.  

Is This the Same Type of Issue as the 2024 Ballot Issue? 

Voters approved an operating levy to fund day-to-day operations in 2024.  

Issue 5 relates to the funding of Phase I of the district facilities plan in order to upgrade and improve Bexley’s school buildings.  

2003 Bexley Alum Helps Community Understand Issue 5 Funding

For a 2003 alumnus of Bexley High School, using his professional skills and expertise to help his local community turned into an unexpected opportunity to assist his hometown as well. This came to be when Tom Storer, an IT project portfolio analyst consultant for Progressive Insurance, was visiting his parents, Mark and Gail Storer, in Bexley and he learned that his hometown school district was considering a dual funding source for facilities upgrades, including a new middle school.  Afterward, he reached out to the district to offer his custom-built online calculator for use during the schools’ Phase I funding request.

Storer, who lives in Independence, Ohio with his wife Koli and their sons Jameson and Kellan, originally built the calculator tool unsolicited when his local school district was considering a funding request similar to Bexley’s.

“When Independence was considering a dual-source ballot measure, I knew that the different components of the proposal would be difficult for many residents to understand,” he explained. “I also wanted to make sure residents had access to accurate information and a reliable source of truth, rather than relying on incomplete or incorrect information being shared throughout the community.”

Using the data analysis and visualization program Tableau to create the interactive calculator, Independence residents can see how proposed taxes could affect them personally. Storer said he originally worked through most of the calculations and information himself and teamed with the Independence finance director to verify the numbers and make sure the information being presented was accurate.

“I wanted people to be able to look at the numbers themselves and understand exactly what the proposal could mean for their household,” Storer said “Whether they supported or opposed the issue wasn't important to me. I wanted them to make that decision based on accurate information. My goal was not to tell people how to vote, but to give them an easy-to-understand tool so they could make an informed decision for themselves.”

Go to bex.fyi/calculator for information about Issue 5 funding and Bexley’s online calculator.

The Bexley alum said the calculator project was a particularly rewarding project because it allowed him to use his professional skills in data analysis and visualization to help people in his community better understand an important local issue.

Kyle Smith called Storer’s calculator a simple and intuitive tool for Bexley residents to learn their potential cost of Issue 5’s two-part funding request. Bexley Schools’ ballot request totals $115 million. It would be funded by no-new-tax-rate property tax totaling 2.05 mills and a half-percent school district income tax.

“I am familiar with similar other calculators, including those offered by the county auditor,” Mr. Smith said. “I find Tom’s calculator to be not only accurate and reliable, but easy to understand from a user perspective. We are incredibly grateful for Tom’s work and that he was willing to reach out and offer it for Bexley’s use.”

To date, only Independence and Bexley have used Storer's calculator, though he said he is reaching out to other school districts to offer it for use as well. 

In the meantime, we are appreciative that Bexley residents will benefit from his work and problem-solving skills. Thank you Tom!

High School to Present Fall Play, Witches!? In Salem?!  Don’t miss Bexley High School’s production of Witches!? In Salem?! on Sept. 26 and 27 in the Schottenstein Theater.

Performance Dates Saturday, Sept. 26, 2 p.m. AND 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 27, 2 p.m. THE STORY: Matt Cox, creator of Puffs, has written a new play that also happens to involve witches. Witches!? In Salem?! is a darkly comedic, yet (mostly) historically accurate take on the Salem Witch Trials and all the (mostly) historically accurate horrors that may occur when populism runs rampant, injustice is a day to day occurrence, and a rigid religious minority sets the laws of the land. You know, old timey problems. A companion, or an alternative, to a certain other Salem play you probably read in high school. In the spirit of edu-tainment, Jenny Anne Bishop, an eighth grader who got “way too into her class lesson plan on The Crucible,” guides us through all the fun facts from the years leading up to, during, and after the trials. Meet culprits, victims, and bystanders alike as a village in turmoil comes to life. Cox delivers a delicious take on pre-American history in the style of Mel Brooks meets Monty Python meets Armando Iannucci. And then there’s that ending...you should probably just see it.

Go to bex.fyi/issue5 to learn about Issue 5, what Phase I includes, and what the cost to residents would be.

 

Bexley Education Foundation’s Mahjong Event Is on Sept. 27

The Bexley Education Foundation, in partnership with the Bexley High School Mahjong Club, is hosting “Mahjong for What Matters,” a fun afternoon of Mahjong play, laughter and community on Sunday, Sept. 27 in the high school gym. Doors open at 12:30 p.m., with play starting at 1 p.m. and continuing until 4 p.m. Snacks and refreshments will be provided along with the opportunity to win prizes.

To learn about becoming an event sponsor, which includes player reservations, or to secure your seat ($50 for adults, $35 for students), go to mahjforwhatmatters.auctria.events or call the Foundation office at (614) 338-2093. 
Proceeds from the event will support projects and programs benefiting Bexley students and staff. Special thanks go to the event’s presenting sponsor, Bobbie’s Shoppe.

 

Important Dates

Sept. 14 (Mon.) – Maryland Elementary Picture Day

Sept. 14 (Mon.) – Montrose Elementary Picture Day

Sept. 15 (Tues.) – Maryland PTO Meeting, 6:30 p.m., School Library

Sept. 17 (Thurs.) – Middle School Musical, Beetlejuice Jr., Crew Interviews, 3:30 p.m., Schottenstein Theater

Sept. 17 (Thurs.) – High School Financial Aid Information Meeting, 6 p.m., Schottenstein Theater

Sept. 17 (Thurs.) – Middle School 8th Grade Washington, D.C. Trip Information Meeting, 6 p.m., Cassingham Theater

Sept. 21 (Mon.) – No Classes for Students & Teachers

Sept. 22 (Tues.) – No Classes for Students; Teacher/Staff Professional Development Day

Sept. 26 (Sat.) – High School Play, Witches!? In Salem?!, 2 p.m. AND 7 p.m., Schottentstein Theater

Sept. 27 (Sun.) – High School Play, Witches!? In Salem?!, 2 p.m., Schottentstein Theater