Submitted photo / Warren City School District Although a ribbon cutting for the new Warren G. Harding Student Recreation and Wellness Center will take place Monday afternoon, more construction will be coming as Akron Children’s Mahoning Valley will open a 6,600-square foot satellite location at the center. Superintendent Steve Chiaro said the pediatric hospital will be attached to the center but will have its own entrance by the baseball and softball fields. It will be open to the public as well as to students.

WARREN — Akron Children’s Mahoning Valley is expanding its footprint in Trumbull County with the opening of a satellite pediatric hospital at the new Warren G. Harding Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

The Warren Board of Education at its meeting Tuesday approved a 10-year lease agreement with the hospital that will begin June 1.

Superintendent Steve Chiaro said the deal has been in the works for several years and the hospital was built into the wellness center plan. He said the first addition to the wellness center was a robotics lab.

He said the Akron Children’s facility will be 6,600-square feet and will offer all of the amenities of its main campus in Akron, including testing labs, X-rays and surgery suites.

The Warren campus will relocate from its site on Mahoning Avenue NW once the building at Warren G. Harding is complete, which will be before the start of the 2025-26 school year. Chiaro said the hospital will be attached to the wellness center, but will have a separate entrance by the baseball and softball fields, enabling it to be open to the public as well as district students and staff.

He also said the district is in talks with a second health care provider, beyond pediatric care, that will locate on the second floor of the Akron Children’s location.

“Four or five years ago, we applied for a grant through the governor’s office to put a nurse practitioner, social worker and support staff from Akron Children’s at Warren G. Harding, in addition to our school-based clinics there and all four of our PK-8 schools,” Chiaro said. “It proved to be such an effective model to serve our students and reduce absenteeism because our students can be seen and get treatment faster. It improved health outcomes for the kids, so we started thinking about having the hospital become a more permanent fixture here.”

He said the money from the state grant — which was written by the district — went directly to Akron Children’s and there has been no added cost to the district because the hospital covers any additional costs beyond the grant.

“It has been a win-win, and we expect this new lease agreement to exceed our expectations,” Chiaro said.

The new facility will be known as Akron Children’s Pediatrics at Warren G. Harding High School.

Construction started in the summer of 2022 on the $36.1 million, 120,000-square-foot wellness center. The two-story building is located between the high school and the football stadium. More than half of its cost is covered by federal grants and the district has set aside funds for the rest.

The first floor includes a 200-meter track with a multipurpose surface inside. On the second floor is an additional walking track.

Besides the running track and walking track, a multisport practice area, yoga and sensory rooms, study stairs, esports facility and robotics lab are part of the wellness center.