West Holmes K-5 school project stays on schedule for 2026 opening

When a school district delves into building an enormous new facility capable of housing the district's entire kindergarten through fifth grade system, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the process hit some snags that would put it behind the projected timeline.

That hasn’t been the case for West Holmes Local Schools, which created an ambitious plan to build a new K-5 building two years ago with its sights set on opening the school in fall 2026.

The blueprint has held to form, and led by Adena Corporation and general contractor Kirk Snyder, the plans to move into the school by fall 2026 remain in place.

Eric Jurkovic, superintendent of West Holmes Schools, said many people thought the goal of opening in fall 2026 was too ambitious and admitted even he could see it being necessary to transfer all the students to the new school during the 2026 Christmas break, but everything has gone so well he doesn’t foresee that happening now.

“I did not want to transition during Christmas break,” Jurkovic said. “That is just a confusing mess to deal with. Fortunately, right now we are right on schedule and looking good for the start of the 2026 school year.”

With 110,000 square feet, the West Holmes K-5 school building is a large undertaking, around half the size of the high school building next to it.

The initial work on the site was moving tons of dirt and carving out the hill and filling in where needed. With the purchase of the land, access to state Route 754 on the west side of the school opened up the avenue to creating a driveway the public will use while the school buses will unload and load students on the east driveway.

“When we started the whole process 1 1/2 years ago, they started moving dirt, and we thought it wouldn’t happen,” Jurkovic said. “All of a sudden the foundation is in and the walls are up and it’s moving along quickly.”

Adena brought in an average of around 100 masons per day to make sure the process kept rolling. Jurkovic said they started erection of the physical building at both ends and met in the middle, all with the hope of getting it under roof by December when cold winter weather moves in.

That has happened, and now workers can apply their trade under the warmth of the new walls and roof. Everything on the second floor will be similar to what is under it on the first floor.

The school building will include a new gymnasium with six basketball hoops and a divider in the middle, age-appropriate playgrounds for both the K-2 and third grade through fifth grade, classrooms that will include new technology, a large cafeteria area with a stage for smaller productions, and state-of-the-art security.

“This gave us the opportunity to figure out exactly what meets our needs of our kids, our staff and community,” Jurkovic said. “We’re allowing each teacher to pick out their furniture for their rooms.”

Jurkovic said all three current elementary principals will move into the new school, although their duties are still being discussed.

“We’ve been meeting periodically to have discussions on how to best proceed and what scheduling will look like,” Jurkovic said.

Monthly conversations with school leaders have an eye focused on two or three years down the road.

Jurkovic said many of the conversations he, District Treasurer Jamie Mullet and others have had since this concept first began haven’t been easy, and trying to look at opening day next year while planning for the future is not an easy undertaking.

One thing he did say was that with the building of the new school, it could entice families to bring their children into the district to boost overall attendance.

“When parents or businesses move into a new community, schools are the first thing they look at,” Jurkovic said. “We now have new up-to-date facilities with great education, and that is enticing to families. Once we get kids in here and people see how nice this is, I think it’s going to be a wonderful experience.

"Our kids deserve this. This is all about the kids. Right now we have four buildings that are not air-conditioned and don’t have handicap accessibility. We understand that those schools have some nostalgia and are a big part of their communities, but this truly does offer much better opportunity for our students.”

By taking two levies off the plate of West Holmes families, clearing a bond and moving around inside millage, getting a reappraisal, all of which decreased taxes, Jurkovic said everything aligned to allow the district to move forward on the project.

“We’re on time and on budget, which is what everyone wants to hear,” Jurkovic said.

Jurkovic said thanks to Adena’s team and plenty of dedicated workers, everything is on target to welcome students on day one of the 2026 school year next August.