The Columbus City Schools' board approved the demolition of four former school buildings at their .
Board members agreed to demolish Monroe Middle School, Beery Middle School, Linmoor Middle School and Beaumont Elementary School. That鈥檚 in addition to three other buildings the board approved for demolition last year.
Linmoor and Beery are on active school sites, while the other two are on separate properties.
CCS Board Vice President Jennifer Adair said the four buildings
"All of them are suffering from water damage, some have flooding, a lot have mold. Roof failure, property damage and no utilities,鈥� Adair said.
The former Monroe Middle School is located at 474 N. Monroe Ave. on the city鈥檚 east side. The more than 71,000-square-foot, three-story building closed in 2014. It sits on about nine acres. District Chief Operating Officer Maurice Woods told the board that most of the building鈥檚 windows and doors have been boarded up because of break-ins and parts of the building have airborne asbestos contamination.
Beery Middle School is a one-story, nearly 79,000-square-foot building located on the same lot as Marion-Franklin High School. Beery closed in 2010, though it鈥檚 been partially leased by the Columbus Metropolitan Library as a branch since 2014. That lease is expected to end this year when a new Marion-Franklin library is finished.
Linmoor Middle School, located at 2001 Hamilton Ave., shares a lot with Hamilton STEM Academy. The building is about 96,000 square feet and one story tall. It was closed as a traditional school in 2007, but later became the Columbus Global Academy before that program was relocated, Woods said. The building was then partially leased to the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department. Woods said the building has structural damage, and the roof had to be reinforced. It鈥檚 also experienced flooding.
The former Beaumont Elementary School, located at 2155 Fenton Ave., is about 30,000 square feet. The building housed the Spanish Immersion Academy and then was leased to the Bridgeway Academy until 2021. Wood said the building has been vandalized and has a leaking roof, which has caused additional damage. It sits on about 5.4 acres.
The school board previously approved the demolition of three other former school buildings, the Franklin Annex, old Wedgewood Middle School and Deshler Elementary School.
Woods said the demolition of those three buildings could begin as early as next week. He expects the other four sites to be demolished in the next few months.
Columbus City Schools reports that it owns about 9.8 million square feet of facilities and 1,500 acres of land. The district鈥檚 properties include 112 schools, 14 administrative buildings and six facilities that are leased, in addition to a handful of vacant and unused sites.
