An Ohio agency with enormous power over where and how public schools are designed, renovated and built is questioning the viability of a plan to establish a STEM academy in Springfield using $4.5 million in state funds.

The project has the strong backing of state Sen. Chris Widener, R-Springfield, the second-highest ranking Senate Republican. Widener has spent more than a year meeting with state officials, lining up some private funding and changing state laws to accommodate the plan to use part of the vacant South High School for the Global Impact STEM Academy, featuring an agri-business curriculum.

Ohio Facilities Construction Commission documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News show that state officials are worried about the Global Impact STEM Academy pulling existing public school students from nearby districts, competing with technology and vocational courses already offered by those districts, and renovating too much instruction space given the declining population and enrollment in Clark County.

“The bottom line is that regardless of what happens, we want to make sure we are not building more space than necessary for any school,” said Rick Savors, spokesman for the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.

Widener, an architect who has designed schools and other public projects and who has chaired the powerful Senate Finance Committee for the past two years, said STEM schools are an up-and-coming trend so the construction commission will have to determine how to fund them.

David Estrop, superintendent of Springfield City Schools and a board member of the STEM school, said it isn’t the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission’s place to decide whether the new academy will exist.

“Those are not their choices to make,” he said. “…There are no schools like this in the state of Ohio offering these kinds of courses. I don’t think the (construction commission) is in any position to make education decisions about what programs should exist or not exist.”

The Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, formerly known as the Ohio School Facilities Commission, oversees non-transportation construction within the state budget. Since 1997 the commission has disbursed more than $10.5 billion in state funds in just over half of Ohio’s 613 school districts.

Part of the commission’s concerns deal with declining enrollments in the Springfield district.

Over the past decade, Clark County’s population has slipped 4.4 percent and Springfield City Schools enrollment dropped 22.4 percent to 7,359 in 2011-12, down from 9,483 in 2002-03. Demographers predict that the enrollment and population numbers for the area will continue to slide.

Questionable building decisions over the past decade have heightened concerns at the OFCC about overbuilding classroom space. As the Daily News reported in 2011, overly optimistic enrollment projections in Springfield and in the nearby Tecumseh Local School district forced those school systems to “repurpose” newly built school buildings; Trotwood-Madison Schools shut down two newly built elementary schools.

Those four buildings cost taxpayers $38 million.

Savors said the OFCC has since refined its formula for projecting enrollment and tried to avoid overbuilding classroom space, which is expensive to construct and maintain.

In a November email to Widener, OFCC Director Richard Hickman outlined numerous concerns about the STEM academy, including the fact that the Springfield district is overbuilt by 2,116 students.

But Estrop argues that enrollment has stabilized and he maintains that the school district is using all its buildings.

The Global Impact STEM Academy has backing from Ohio State University, Battelle, Ohio Farm Bureau, Bob Evans Farms, Dayton Development Coalition, Turner Foundation, Springfield Foundation and Springfield City Schools, Estrop said. So far, backers have pledged about $1.5 million of the needed $4.5 million in local fundraising, he said, which would be in addition to the state’s share.

The backers want to renovate 70,000 square-feet of the 254,000-square-foot South High School, a 104-year-old vacant building that sits on 16 acres. Estrop said another tenant is interested in occupying more space but declined to disclose who the potential occupant is.

OFCC estimates it would cost $39.84 million to renovate the entire complex or $23.1 million to renovate just the 70,000-square-feet that the STEM school would occupy. (A new 70,000-square-foot high school would cost an estimated $17 million to build, according to the commission.)

Widener disputes those estimates.

“The GISA project at South High is proposed to cost less than one half the cost that ( the Ohio School Facilities Commission) previously estimated, because public STEM schools function in much different space than traditional school buildings,” he said.

Academy backers estimate renovating just the 70,000-square-feet would cost $6.6-million to $9.6 million. But the construction commission says state law does not allow for STEM schools to renovate just a segment of a building and then receive state money for additional segments down the road.

In the past, Widener has helped the project overcome such legal stumbling blocks. In December, he inserted an amendment to pending legislation that would allow Springfield Schools to lease South High School to the academy without jumping through legal hoops that may have required the district to once again offer the abandoned building to any charter schools that may want it.

Not long ago, regional STEM academies weren’t eligible for state school facilities funds, but lawmakers included a provision in the 2012-13 state budget bill that allowed for it. The provision was inserted at the last minute by the conference committee, on which Widener served.

Backers of the Global Impact academy hope to open in the fall and enroll 600 students by 2016. The construction commission usually requires regional STEM schools to be operating for three years before they are eligible for state funding. That allows the state to have hard enrollment numbers before committing to spending millions of dollars in taxpayer money.

Estrop said it’s yet to be determined whether the school will open this fall in South High or a temporary building elsewhere. The academy can begin renovations, spending local money first and applying for state funds later.

The OFCC also questioned whether there is enough interest among parents and students in an agri-business curriculum. As it is, Springfield Clark County Career Tech Center does not offer any agriculture programs and Springfield City High School offers just one.

“It is unclear whether there is little demand for agricultural career tech programs or whether the new STEM will provide an unmet need,” demographer DeJong Healy wrote in a 52-page report to the OFCC.

Estrop, however, said the Global Impact STEM Academy is a new education model that ties problem-solving learning to available jobs in the business world.

“Senator Widener has been a champion of this whole new concept. And very frankly the driving force behind that commitment and my commitment to the project is it creates more opportunities for the students in this area,” Estrop said. “We need those opportunities and our students need those opportunities. Springfield needs jobs, Clark County needs jobs, this whole region needs jobs.”

Jackie Borchardt of the Columbus Bureau contributed to this report.