An Akron industrialist wants to buy the old Riverside-Harrison School in Sedamsville to open a community school.
If he gets the property, David Brennan aims to open several Cincinnati schools modeled after his Hope Academies, where computers are key and the school day and year are longer than at other public schools. "Public education has failed. Parents deserve the legislatively allowed choice of community schools," said Mr. Brennan, who spearheaded Ohio's tuition voucher movement.
Mr. Brennan opened two Hope Academies in Cleveland last year as voucher schools. The Ohio Board of Education approved three more in Cleveland, two in Akron and one in Youngstown to open as community schools this fall.
He plans to apply to the state board for approval of several academies in Cincinnati after he secures the locations. The first probably wouldn't open until 1999, he said.
Mr. Brennan offered Cincinnati Public Schools $250,000 for the 3.38-acre Sedamsville property, appraised in 1996 at $650,000, said Bev Nichols, the district's director of purchasing. Since that appraisal, a leaky roof has damaged the 48-year-old, two-story building's interior, Ms. Nichols said.
Administrators already have rejected an offer from Ishton Morton, a former CPS vocational teacher, who wanted the district to transfer ownership of the property to him at no cost so he could open a community school.
School board members plan to consider the offer this month. Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney questioned Mr. Brennan's motivation.
The Hope Academies "are just meant to be a wedge to enhance his campaign to privatize education and make it a for-profit enterprise," Mr. Mooney said. "He has an ideological agenda."
School board members should consider reopening Riverside-Harrison as a neighborhood school to ease crowded schools in Price Hill, Mr. Mooney said.
But board member Sally Warner said the site is hardly ideal for a school. It has limited space for recreation and transportation needs, and its location on busy River Road threatens the safety of children walking to school, she said.
Mr. Brennan, who owns about a dozen factories nationwide, said he got involved in education in the 1980s, when his factory managers discovered that a third of their workers were illiterate and two-thirds did not possess simple math skills. That prompted him to start in-house training and tutoring programs.
As he noticed job applicants getting progressively worse, he turned his attention to the public school system, heading Gov. George Voinovich's Select Education Commission.
Riverside-Harrison elementary was among three CPS schools that administrators closed in 1982 to alleviate financial problems. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began using the building in the mid-1980s to train emergency and government workers in managing hazardous materials. They moved out last summer, seeking larger quarters, Ms. Nichols said.
The McMillan Center is the only other district-owned building available for sale, Ms. Nichols said. The district hasn't fielded any offers for that property, she said.
