WARREN — Superintendent Steve Chiaro used a portion of the Warren Board of Education’s Tuesday meeting to dispel rumors that he claimed “keyboard warriors” were spreading on the internet regarding the district’s $36.1 million wellness / recreation center.

While providing to the board communications the district has received, Chiaro addressed the rumors that were sent to him from a community member.

“There are so many keyboard warriors in Warren that get rolling on some things, not the person who brought this to me, but the conversations just start rolling out of control here,” Chiaro said.

The first rumor Chiaro shot down was the suggestion that a tax levy would be put forward to help fund the 120,000-square-foot, two-story facility.

“No, there will be no additional tax levy for the student recreation and wellness center,” Chiaro said. “We have prepared and invested, and 50 percent of it is through grant dollars.”

Chiaro also denied that the district is “short on funds” for the center.

“Things have been going very well project-wise, and we are very pleased with that,” he said.

Chiaro also informed the board and those in attendance that the recreation facility will not be open continually but will have set hours.

The superintendent did note however that the goal of the district is to have the facility open for public use to some extent. Chiaro emphasized that student use will be the top priority for the facility.

“It is a student recreation and wellness center,” he said. “It is our plan to integrate the community after we get our students acclimated to the facility. We can’t just keep the doors open, it’s tied to our school. So we would have to find organized segments of time and activities for our community to be engaged in the center.”

Chiaro said the facility could be available for public use at some point throughout the day, whether it be morning, evening or during the school day. But any time for public use would have to be designated by the district.

“I want to stress, there are no new tax dollars for this,” board President Julian Walker said. “We are not running in a deficit at all; this is not affecting our day-to-day operations or any other planned activities.”

In other business, the board adopted a resolution approving several agreements regarding the installation of a new scoreboard at Mollenkopf Stadium.

The district will pay $463,981 to Daktronics, Inc. of Brookings, South Dakota, for the new scoreboard. It also will pay $101,200 to LMC Services of Delphos, for the installation of the scoreboard and $10,300 to Becdel Controls Inc. of Niles for the installation of electronic devices in the board.

COMMERCIAL

Chiaro also shared with the board a commercial that he said will be airing on local television stations during December to highlight the strong points of the district.

“At our work session on Oct. 18, the question came up, and it was a long work session, we had hours of presentations, one or multiple board members said, ‘Why don’t we do a better job on sharing out the good things going on in the district?'” Chiaro said.

The advertisement was shown to board members, but not to those in attendance, as Chiaro said he was not sure of the laws regarding showing the clip over YouTube, where board meetings are livestreamed.

The clip was about 30 seconds long and narrated by the superintendent.

The district hopes the commercial will spark conversation among families regarding what is going on with Warren City Schools.

“It’s (meant) to get folks talking about what is being offered here in Warren City Schools,” Chiaro said. “It’s for our local folks, but also those who will be coming back in to spend time during the holidays, especially those alumni who have spent time in the Warren City Schools to realize the good things that are going on in the district.”

Chiaro said he did not know how much Warren schools had to pay for the commercial.