The United Local Schools Board of Education members, from left, Justin Medure, Heather Milliken Mercer, Wendy Doyle, Denise Rhodes and Ruth Ann Rinto. (Photo by Stephanie Elverd)

HANOVERTON — The United Local school district paused to remember the past before stepping into the future as the Blue Eagle community gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking for the new school campus with a ceremony held in the United gymnasium on Saturday.

Architect Kyle Miller told those gathered that embracing the United tradition was just as important as moving forward for SHP, the team which designed the new state-of-the-art K through 12 building.

“When I walked through the halls here of this older building and I thought about the history of United, I was always drawn to one sign. It says ‘We are United’ and that really resonated with me,” Miller said. “The history of eleven individual school buildings from three districts came together back in the 1940’s to form the United Local School District proves that United is bred in your core. You were a group that came together to think about education at that time, everyone united thinking about the future of education for more generations to come. As we looked forward to the new building, we didn’t want to lose that history.”

It was in 1944 that the Hanover Rural School District consolidated with the Kensington Special School District and Butler School District to create United Local Schools. The schools came together under one roof in 1951. The high school was completed in 1955 and the first graduating class held its commencement in the spring of 1959.

To honor that class and all the other classes that followed, 1959 United graduate Brent Weber spoke at the ceremony. It was Weber’s class that penned the Alma Mater, chose the school colors and set the all-time-win record (20-4) on the very gym floor that Weber, who was a part of that team, stood in the center of and addressed the packed house on Saturday.

“We had a lot of kids graduate from this building. Some were teachers, some were even professors and some had their own businesses. And we had many, many other great people come out of here,” he said. “We also had good teachers, who taught us and sent out into the world and we still have good teachers and we still have great kids.”

Not all of the old will go out to make room for the new. The gymnasium/ auditorium building along with the three-story classroom wing, a multi-purpose building and the bus garage will be retained and integrated into the new campus. The new additions to the campus will include a main building that will offer bright, daylit spaces, hands-on learning labs, reduced maintenance and operating costs, enhanced curricular and extracurricular spaces as well as the newest in security features.

“This is an exciting time in our district’s history. It’s been a long planning process and we are incredibly grateful to the students, the staff, the parents, and the community members who have participated in planning this state-of-the-art learning facility that aims to create an engaging and stimulating learning environment while also providing the latest safety concepts that we could get,” Superintendent Lance Hostetler said. ” A new building is only part of our commitment to providing education and real life problem solving skills. We believe this investment in our infrastructure will pay huge dividends in our future and ensure our students have an opportunity to learn and succeed in their individual educational goals and objectives.”

The nearly $50 million project was funded through $28,970,346 in state funding approved by the Ohio Facilities Commission. The other $20,131,935 came from revenue generated by the Nexus gas pipeline and compression station in the district. Construction is set to begin this summer and the new building is slated to open with the 2025-26 school year.

“There’s been a lot of meetings, we’ve walked a lot of ground, looked at a lot of paper and looked at a lot of options,” Board of Education member Denise Rhodes said. “In the end, we wanted to make sure we are doing what’s best for the community and the students that will be served by this new building. Whether they start here or end here, anytime they walk through these halls, we want to make sure that we have served them and provided them the best education possible.”

A virtual tour of the project can be viewed at buildunitedlocal.com.