Groundbreaking: Monroe Schools celebrate start of new $62M high school

Michael D. Clark | The Journal News

Monroe school and city officials gathered at a campus field Saturday, May 9, for a groundbreaking ceremony for the first new high school in Butler County in 16 years.

The morning event, including ceremonial shoveling of dirt by various officials, marked the official beginning of the first construction phase for a $62 million high school at Monroe Schools’ 2-12 grades main campus.

Monroe school officials also hope it is the beginning of a lasting solution to classroom overcrowding plaguing the public school system in the last decade.

“This absolutely a historic day for Monroe Schools,” said Robert Buskirk, superintendent of the city schools.

“It’s an exciting time to be a resident of Monroe. This community, by supporting this new high school, show how much they value their kids and their education,” said Buskirk.

The new high school, which will house grades 9-12, is so far on schedule to be ready by August 2028, at the district’s main Yankee Road campus, said officials.

And the district’s aging primary school at 225 Macready Road, which was opened in the 1950s, will eventually be closed with its pre-K, kindergarten and first grade enrollment moved into some of the learning spaces of the Yankee Road school when grades 9-12 are relocated in August 2028 to the new high school.

Monroe Schools have more than doubled enrollment to the current 2,850 students since the current 2-12 grades school building was opened in 2004.

In January, the district also unveiled a $2.5 million gym-to-classrooms conversion facility to help ease some of the overcrowding in the 2-12 grades school.

The new high school will be located about 200 yards from the southern section of the current 2-12 grades combined school, which has its elementary, middle school and high school grades divided into three separate wings.

And when it opens its doors in 2028, the Monroe High School will be the first new 9-12 public school in the county since Talawanda Schools opened a new high school in 2012.

The new high school will consist of mostly a two-story building — higher for the gym — with a total projected square footage being between 135,000 to 140,000.

Monroe City Manager Larry Lester said the new school’s positive impact on the growing city is anticipated and appreciated.

“This is an important project for our whole community. Schools are the backbone of any community and there is a lot of excitement and energy around this project,” said Lester.

School parent Julie Krueckeberg, who has three children in Monroe Schools, was among the more than three dozen in attendance at the outdoor event.

“We have been waiting for this (high school) many, many years and we are very excited,” said Krueckeberg. “This is very important for the community and for the future of our children.”

It will be the first new high school in Butler County in 16 years.