Kenston Local Schools

In 2002, Kenston Local School District voters passed a $45 million bond issue to finance construction of a new 1,200-student high school, renovations and conversion of the existing high school to a middle school, and classroom additions to the elementary schools. Based on their high level of satisfaction with Heery’s performance as the construction program manager for a previous, smaller bond program, the school board again turned to Heery to oversee the 2002 Bond Program.

Located on 60 acres of farmland, the new $30 million high school has 280,000 SF with 60 classrooms, a 745-seat auditorium, five computer labs and an array of other facilities, including three art studios and two greenhouses.  Classrooms are situated in a two-story academic wing with a centralized state of the art media center and distance learning lab.

In an extraordinary effort, Heery was able to save unique murals that were painted on the walls of the English classroom by Kenston high school students as far back as 1990. Learning that the murals – many of which revolved around literature and books on the class reading list – would be painted over when the high school was converted to a middle school, Heery hired a photographer to capture each mural on film, then framed and hung the photographs in the new high school’s art room.

The entire program was completed nearly $1 million under budget, with no contractor claims. These funds were used for other capital projects within the district, including new school board offices.