Politics & Government

School Board OKs Lease Agreement with YMCA

The YMCA will keep its location inside the Charlotte Building — where it operates its preschool and daycare — after the board approved a year-long lease

The will have another year in the Charlotte Building after the North Canton Board of Education approved a year-long lease Wednesday night.

The district leases space in the Charlotte Building at 200 Charlotte St. NW to the North Canton YMCA for the YMCA to provide preschool and daycare services there. On June 20, , which would have given the YMCA another 14 months in the building, after citing concerns about losing money through the lease.

And then on June 28, the board agreed to continue its lease agreement for two months.

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Ben Wheeler, executive director of the YMCA, had attended previous meetings to advocate for the lease agreement and attended Wednesday night's meeting to make a final push for it.

"We've got a very strong history of partnering to serve the families in North Canton, and we're very proud to continue that," Wheeler said. "We have a number of collaborations in the works. We have a number of things we're very proud to be a part of in association with North Canton City Schools."

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The building at 200 Charlotte St. NW — which the district had talked about razing after the switch to all-day, everyday kindergarten — had housed the YMCA Daycare, the North Canton Heritage Society and North Canton Special Education offices. All but the daycare have .

"We feel strongly that this agreement for 12 months in this school year will allow us the opportunity to continue to serve our families here in North Canton and to transition smoothly, without interruption, to a new location at the end of that time period."

The board approved the lease agreement, with all members voting yes. Member Chris Goldthorpe abstained from voting, as his wife Debbie Goldthorpe is the associate executive director of the North Canton YMCA.

The approved lease agreement is for Sept. 1, 2012, through Aug. 31, 2013.

The board also agreed on 6 p.m. Sept. 19 for its next meeting and approved the all items on the night's agenda, which is listed in the PDFs section of this update.


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