BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Natasha Arias, 6, checks out her room at the new Summit View Elementary.
(Ryan Miller photo)
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Across the Tristate, kids are returning to blackboards, classrooms and teachers. Classes start as early as Monday in Northern Kentucky's Walton-Verona District and as late as Sept. 1 for Cincinnati Public Schools.
Major changes are in store for many students -- tightened security, new buildings, construction and expanded academic programs. After the rash of shootings last school year, many educators spent the summer working to improve safety.
Kings Local School District in Warren County is adopting a locked-door policy already used by Cincinnati Public Schools.
All employees and visitors -- including parents -- will have to wear badges to enter schools, where all but one door will be locked during school hours, spokeswoman Linda Oda said.
Little Miami Local School District will offer a 24-hour hot line for students, staff and the community to call and anonymously report concerns about violence, drugs, thefts, sexual harassment and weapons, Superintendent Michael Virelli said. Callers will get a response within 72 hours, he said.
Bulldozers and hard hats may be the biggest change other students find at their schools.
Groundwork for Walnut Hills High School's planned $12 million arts and sciences center started this summer. It will replace science labs built in 1931 and allow art classrooms to be relocated from the basement.
Boone and Kenton county students will have new schools.
Erpenbeck Elementary School in Union will serve a nearly brand-new school population cropping up with new subdivisions. Summit View Elementary and Middle schools in Independence will house students from across Kenton County.
And at Sycamore High School in Montgomery, students will start school Aug. 26 amid a large construction project -- big enough to eventually add the equivalent of an elementary school.
Work began in June, and the $14 million, 77,200-square-foot Sycamore extension will be finished in fall 1999. The project will add 17 classrooms -- including three science labs and two choral-band practice areas, a larger cafeteria and commons area and an enlarged loading dock. Areas under construction will be cordoned off from students.
Sycamore High's enrollment is at 2,100 in grades 9-12, crammed into a building designed in 1974 for 1,600 students. The addition will raise the school's capacity to 2,300 students.
In the Oak Hills and Northwest local school districts, parents and students will witness the construction of buildings and renovation of others.
And in Winton Woods, students who used to attend Forest View Elementary School will attend new elementary schools this year, after money problems forced district officials to close Forest View.
In other districts, students will find more curriculum and policy changes.
Cincinnati Public Schools students will be have more team-based schools, new kindergarten-to-8th-grade schools, 36 new all-day kindergartens and a stronger emphasis on mainstreaming disabled students.
Students can attend a new year-round program at Woodward High School. They also can enroll in two new community schools -- Oak Tree Montessori downtown and the Harmony Community School Center in Avondale.
And at Reading Junior - Senior High School, the The Devils' Advocate student newspaper returns this fall, after a year on hold because of budget cuts.
Other cuts -- such as extracurricular activities, some teachers and aides -- also have been restored. The cuts were made after a school-tax increase failed twice before passing in November.
Bernie Mixon, Miriam Smith, Andrea Tortora and Christine Wolff contributed to this report.
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