A two-day meeting that included Buckeye Valley Local School District teachers and administrators, as well as the architect designing the district’s proposed elementary school complexes, has generated some positive results.

That was the word from Superintendent Andrew Miller when he addressed the board of education during the board’s monthly meeting on Tuesday at Buckeye Valley West Elementary School in Ostrander. The meeting was the final one ahead of the Nov. 3 election during which district residents will vote on the $31.3 million bond issue to fund construction of two new elementary schools.

Miller told the board that the visioning session held in September allowed educators to express their thoughts about what the educational process could look like in the future and provide input about how to best serve the needs of district students in the years to come. He said each school in the district was represented at the meeting.

“We asked the question of our teachers, ‘what do you want to be able to do in the classroom and what would your ideal classrooms be like?’” Miller said. “When they talked about educating kids 20, 30 years out, they thought there would be a lot more collaboration, project-based learning, technology, blended learning, things of that nature — which I certainly agree with. In terms of the facilities, they thought what was most important was to have flexible spaces where you can collaborate, multi-purpose areas.”

Miller said that based on the feedback from the teachers, the architect from OHM Advisors designed the conceptual site plans for each elementary building. Those plans were made public last week. The plans were posted on the Excellence for Buckeye Valley campaign committee website.

“It’s certainly not a finished product,” Miller said in regard to the conceptual site plans. “But we’re taking those thoughts and having some general ideas about what our buildings might look like.”

The bond issue, if approved, would cost an additional $108.50 in property taxes annually on a property valued at $100,000. However, the net tax increase would actually be $47.18 each year per $100,000 valuation due to the expiration of another bond issue in December. That bond issue, approved by voters in 1995, paid for the construction of Buckeye Valley Middle School.

Members of the Excellence for Buckeye Valley campaign committee told the board that they will be out in the district over the next two weekends going door to door to garner support for the bond issue.

Miller also told the school board that the district’s Facebook page is now live and noted that the Buckeye Valley Twitter account (@BV_Barons) is becoming more productive due to the work of communications consultant Lynette Rice.