Construction on North Ridgeville's new high school remains on time and on budget, with physical construction having been active for about 13 months by September 2026. Work began with the district's August 2025 groundbreaking.
According to the Morning Journal, the project remains on schedule and on budget, and the new school is scheduled to open in August 2028. The new building, rising south of the current high school on Bainbridge Road, will replace the existing school entirely. Once students move into the new building, the current high school will be demolished and its site converted into new practice fields.
The new building is scheduled to open in August 2028 for the 2028-29 school year.
A Building More Than Twice the Size of the Current School
The scale of the project is hard to overstate. The new high school will span 340,000 square feet — more than double the size of the current building — according to North Ridgeville City Schools. The district's plans call for more than 75 academic spaces designed to have what officials describe as a collegiate feel.
The district's construction partner ThenDesign Architecture notes that the building will include an auditorium, a natatorium and a performing arts center. The natatorium is intended to provide training and competition space for North Ridgeville swimmers, and the district says it could also become a revenue source through rental opportunities for other area swim teams.
North Ridgeville City Schools designed the project in partnership with ThenDesign Architecture and Hammond Construction.
Bus Garage and Bond Issue Round Out the Larger Project
The high school is only part of a larger construction effort funded by the $143 million bond issue voters passed in 2023. That larger project also includes a new transportation and maintenance facility that will service district buses and vehicles, with early site work beginning on the north side of the Academic Center on Ranger Way.
The transportation complex will house the district's current fleet of 60 buses with room for 20 more, and it will include four bays for bus repairs and maintenance along with a drive-through bus-washing station, according to Cleveland Magazine. The current bond measure followed a previous attempt that failed by just 23 votes in the spring of 2023, according to Ideastream Public Media, before district officials returned with a bond proposal funding both the new high school and a transportation and maintenance facility.
The idea of replacing North Ridgeville's high school isn't new. Back in 2019, the district was weighing master-plan options that included a new high school, a new kindergarten-through-fourth-grade building at Liberty Elementary, and a transportation and maintenance facility, with one option estimated at $154 million, according to reporting at the time from the Morning Journal.
Following the Project
Students and other community members can follow along as the building takes shape through the district's construction website.
