YOUNGSTOWN — As the Youngstown City School District board of education works to figure out how Kirkmere Elementary School will be used in the future, one option has emerged that's caught the interest of Mahoning County.

“It’s a good location, and if it is, in fact, going to be open and vacant, why not go government-to-government?” said Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti on Thursday. 

Rimedio-Righetti and school board member Joe Meranto each confirmed to 21 News that unofficial discussions have been held between the school board and county commissioners — working with the Port Authority — about repurposing the school for the county Board of Elections (BOE).

These conversations are not formal and far from finalized, but they could signal a way to find the BOE a new office inside city limits. Board officials have sounded the alarm about unsafe conditions at their current building on Oak Hill Avenue, even taking the issue to the Ohio secretary of state in November 2025. 

Kirkmere is currently home to the district’s preschoolers and some district offices, and has not been used as an elementary school since 2024. According to Meranto, the preschools will be returned to their original elementary-school homes next year, and the district’s central offices are moving to Volney Rogers Elementary School. 

In a statement to 21 News, school board president Juanita Walker said the process of considering Kirkmere’s future is “ongoing.” 

“At this time, the board is still evaluating with the Kirkmere building, and we are carefully reviewing all options to ensure any decision aligns with state law and district policy,” Walker said. 

There are steps the district would be legally required to take before it could even consider giving or selling Kirkmere to Mahoning County. Ohio state law dictates that when a school district has an unused building, it must first offer to sell the building to charter and STEM schools in the area at market value, before it can open the sale up to other buyers. 

This law takes effect after a building is vacant for 365 days. Meranto said that clock is likely to start ticking at the end of June or start of July — after the end of the current school year — and said the school board will use that time to consider all its options. 

This isn’t the first building to emerge as a potential new place for the BOE to land. The county commissioners purchased the former InfoCision building on Patriot Boulevard in Austintown in November 2024, with the intention of housing county offices there — but according to Rimedio-Righetti, that building was “never an option” for the BOE.

“None of us were going to place that board of elections at the InfoCision building,” Rimedio-Righetti said Thursday. "That was being looked at for other offices that were outside of the city.”

Rimedio-Righetti declined to share any updates or details on what will happen with the InfoCision building, but said more information will be available “in the next couple weeks.”