Construction on new Triway school moving along

Anyone driving along Route 226 in Wooster can see from the outside that the One Triway construction project is well underway.

Soon builders will turn their attention to the inside.

Construction on the 250,000-square-foot building, which will house preschool through 12th grade on the site of the current Triway High School and Middle School campus, has been remarkable to watch, Superintendent Nate Schindewolf said.

“It’s finally coming to fruition,” said Schindewolf, who’s in his seventh year as superintendent. “The plan is to be under roof by the winter so that we’ll be able to work on the inside.”

The One Triway construction site is a stone’s throw away from the current high school. On a typical day this fall, more than 100 workers ranging from masons, to electricians, to plumbers have been hard at work to keep the project on schedule.

“There’s a lot of people and a lot going on, but it’s exciting,” Schindewolf said. “When it came out of the ground, it became real. With the December 2022 pictures, you see the leveling of the dirt, and that stuff is cool, but to actually see it come vertical is pretty awesome.”

The “awesome” factor will continue to increase exponentially once community members see the next phases of the project and the building opens in late 2024.

Schindewolf showed sketches and photos of the planned building and its special features. The four current schools in the Triway District will be combined in the new building: high school (ninth grade through 12th grade), junior high (sixth grade through eighth grade) and two elementary schools (kindergarten through fifth grade).

“We will have all three levels in the one building,” Schindewolf said. “It will be a pre-k through 12th building under one roof but still operate as three separate buildings. We’ll have a pre-k wing, kindergarten through fifth wing, a sixth through eighth wing and a ninth through 12th wing.

“We’ll have everything on campus here, even bringing softball up from Shreve. It will be the first time we’ve really had one central hub to the community, in terms of our school. We’re excited to bring everybody together, obviously. It’s something we’ve worked several years on, making sure that it’s a smooth transition.”

Sixth grade through 12th grade will transition into the new school in December 2024. Elementary school students will be brought in fall 2025.

After several levies that failed, Triway passed a 1 % earned income tax in November 2019 that generated $50 million to make the shared collaborative project with the Ohio Facility Construction Commission a reality. Triway will contribute 67% of the money, with the OFCC adding the remaining 33%.

A large number of individuals have worked on the project, especially the school board consisting of Ryan Gilbert (president), Tyler Bishko (vice president), Anjanette James, Donald Noble II and Travis Snyder. Treasurer Sue Kruse also has been instrumental, Schindewolf said.

“As an alumnus, it’s been cool to see all of the input from people throughout the community, ranging from faculty and administrators to community members and also kids,” said Snyder, who’s on the building committee. “A lot of people only saw the first and final designs, but there were a lot of changes along the way — right down to things like changing where doors are. It’s going to be a great school for our district.”

There will be many unique features to the Triway One building:

—A 700-seat dedicated auditorium.

—Emphasis on natural light and extended learning areas instead of traditional hallways.

—Modern STEAM labs.

—Carmichael Court will be the centerpiece of adjoining high school and middle school basketball gyms, which will have a motorized wall between them. The wall will be able to open up to accommodate bigger events.

—A set of bleachers will be able to be flipped behind the basket for a high school or middle school competition. The home side bleachers for the high school court will pay homage to The Pit used in the current high school.

“Save The Pit” was a comment Snyder and others on the building committee heard early on, but that simply wasn’t feasible. However, the approximate 2,000-seat gym will have a “Pit feel” with additional seating available and judging from sketches will be one of the biggest and nicest around.

“This is not going to be a cookie-cutter gym like you see in a lot of new school buildings,” Schindewolf said. “Obviously, there’s so much history in The Pit, and everybody talks about how unique it is.

“We wanted to have a Pit feel, and that was one of the challenges we gave to the architect. The Pit has some amazing features, but a new gym has to meet ADA requirements and be up to code. The new gym will have three large openings that you can walk through on the home side and go down like you’re walking down into a pit.”

Schindewolf said the Triway district is excited to honor the late Sean Carmichael and his family for all they’ve done by naming the court after them.

“We designed Carmichael Court and the gym in collaboration with some community members who were donors to the project,” Schindewolf said. “We’re excited to unveil some of the markings on the court that will be a nod to Sean and his family.

“In partnership with United Titanium, there will be a 14-foot-tall Titan head that will be prominent in the gym. People will be able to sit at high-top tables and watch a game from a second-level, shared mezzanine section.”

The current high school opened in 1963.

“I just feel a lot of pride in what we’ve accomplished as a community together,” Schindewolf said. “When I talk about just one central focus, we’ve always had three community schools that all have a lot of pride.

“People will see a lot of themes of ‘three’ in the new building. There’s some banding across the outside where we have bricks that are lined up in three, and all those things are strategic to represent our three communities because that’s where the Triway name came from. We’ve all been able to move forward in building a new school, which we feel will last 40 or 50 years.”

For more on the construction project online, visit www.onetriway.com.