Beginning Monday, the Canton Local School District will start the multi-step process to demolish the former Prairie College School, which closed in August. The demolition will fulfill a promise the school district made to residents during the campaign for a bond issue to build a new high school and upgrade its middle and elementary schools. Most former school buildings have been demolished, but a handful remain standing and vacant, a survey of Stark County school districts show.

Vera Shaffer wrote an epilogue to the history of the elementary school where she spent 26 years of her 30-year teaching career.

“Prairie College School, you have served your community well and nourished the minds and hearts of the students who walked your floors. You caused people to come together to work hand-in-hand for the betterment of an education that relished from beyond your doors,” wrote the former first grade teacher.

“We felt we needed some closure,” she said in an interview last week.

Shaffer, who retired from the Canton Local elementary school in 2001, shared her postscript with her former colleagues, students and school administrators during a recent open house as more than 200 people walked the wooden hallways of the school at 3021 Prairie College Street SW for the last time.

“It was more of a family kind of place,” Shaffer recalled. “We felt like it was more of a family than it was an institution.”

The school, originally a one-room schoolhouse named Franklin School in 1824, served students from kindergarten through fifth grade for most of its years.

DEMOLITION

Beginning Monday, district officials will start the multi-step process to demolish the former school, which most recently housed the district’s preschool and some Stark County Educational Service Center classrooms until it closed in August. Superintendent Kim Redmond said a meeting will be held Monday to present the demolition project, which includes abating the asbestos in the building, to interested contractors. The district will open bids on April 16, and the demolition is expected to be completed in September.

The demolition will fulfill a promise the district made to residents during the campaign for a $36.6 million bond issue to build a new high school, a 900-seat auditorium and upgrade its middle and elementary schools. Voters in November approved the bond issue, which includes money to demolish Prairie College and the current high school and central office, by 69 votes.

Board President Dave Brothers said the board made the promise to avoid the same outcomes of the district’s other former elementary schools.

“Many years ago, before ... any of us were on the board, we had sold North Industry Grade School and Waco Grade School to private individuals,” said Brothers, who emphasized that the board has no authority over the buildings. “They are (now) both in decay and the township is having trouble finding the owners. ... They are two buildings just sitting in decay and the community has for years criticized the school district because we have these school buildings that are no longer useful and they are eyesores, so we didn’t want that to happen again.”

Redmond said the age of the building and its needed repairs made it fiscally irresponsible for the district to leave it open. She said the district also researched whether it would be feasible to sell, but determined, based on the low prices offered by some interested buyers, that it would not get fair market value.

“We (also) didn’t want to be in the situation where someone would buy and then leave the building,” she said.

Redmond said the district may consider selling the nearly seven-acre property in the future. The Stark County Auditor’s Office has appraised the land at $43,400.

PRESERVATION

Shaffer believes demolishing Prairie College is the right decision.

“It makes me very sad, but we understand the reasoning behind it,” said Shaffer, referring to the still vacant North Industry school, where she taught for four years before transferring to Prairie College. “ ... We didn’t want that to happen to our building.”

She hopes the district will preserve the mini-park the school created in 1995 as part of a yearlong multicultural learning initiative.

“It’s not just because it was a project, but it’s a piece of art,” Shaffer said.

As part of the park project, students, teachers, administrators, school board members and even some community members each designed a cement block to represent their perspective on the life, background and beliefs of the Prairie College students and Canton Local community.

Shaffer recalls creating a butterfly for her cement block.

“Butterflies evolve, and I always felt like I had to evolve and progress,” Shaffer said.

The blocks, which were colored red, tan, white and gray, were assembled to resemble a patchwork quilt near the school’s playground.

Redmond said if the district decides to eventually pursue the sale of the land, those involved with Prairie College’s mini-park would be given an opportunity to preserve it.

Reach Kelli at 330-580-8339 or on Twitter: @kyoungREP