of a new high school with a larger campus offering more room for future expansion. In 1955, district voters approved a $1.5 million bond issue (approximately $ present-day) followed by a $650,000 bond issue (about $ present-day) in 1957 to fund a new high school, new elementary school, and renovation of the old high school to become a junior high school. Also in 1957, the school board purchased several acres of farmland along North Mantua Street as the site for the new high school campus. Although some viewed the site as too remote, construction began in 1958 and the building was opened September 8, 1959 housing 550 students in grades 10–12. Enrollment increases throughout the 1960s and 1970s would necessitate several additions and by 1968, the graduating class numbered 238 students. Also in 1959, the Franklin Township and Brady Lake districts merged with the Kent City School District, bringing additional students to Roosevelt. Prior to that time some students from Franklin Township and Brady Lake, neither of which had an accredited high school, attended Roosevelt as tuition-paying students to complete their high school diploma, while others finished at Kent State High School. The state of Ohio had previously paid tuition for rural schools without accredited high schools, but discontinued doing so in the late 1950s. In 1972, 121 students from Kent State High School, which had closed earlier that year, were transferred to Roosevelt. Beginning in 1978, ninth graders started attending the high school again for the first time since 1959 due to overcrowding at Davey Junior High School. In 1985, Roosevelt was honored as one of 212 high schools in the United States to earn the Presidential Excellence in Education award from the U.S. Department of Education. Since 2004, Roosevelt has consistently been rated "Excellent" by the Ohio Department of Education and in December 2009, U.S. News & World Report named Roosevelt in the 2010 "Best High Schools" issue as a Bronze Medal school. The school earned a "Bronze Medal" ranking and was one of only 46 high schools in the state of Ohio to be named in the report. Roosevelt was named as a Bronze Medal school again in 2015, 2016, and 2018. Campus and facilities In addition to approximately 70 classrooms, the building contains a multi-purpose gymnasium, auditorium, a library, and a six-lane indoor swimming pool. When first opened in 1959, the building contained 27 classrooms, a