According to portions of a preliminary plan to restructure Cincinnati Public Schools, several schools in the city's northern neighborhoods will take on a team-based approach to education.
The district has been having closed-door meetings with teachers, parents and principals throughout the district breaking down the plan's proposals. At a Tuesday meeting at Schwab Middle School in Northside, the neighborhood group learned its schools would be spared any closings, said Harriet Russell, school board member.
The restructuring plan recommends that within a few years, Chase and Kirby Road schools should become K-8 schools; Schwab should be a K-8 school with a magnet focus, Pleasant Hill should be renovated and Heinold school's foreign language-based program should get a new building, Ms. Russell said.
Most of the schools would become team-based, meaning teams of teachers would stay with a class for several years, Ms. Russell said.
Man accused of raping wife
COLERAIN TOWNSHIP -- A 30-year-old Capstan Drive man was arrested by Hamilton County sheriff's deputies early Tuesday on charges he tied up his wife, raped her, and then threatened to set off an explosion at the house.
Police charged the man with a first-degree felony count of rape and a first-degree misdemeanor count of child endangering.
He is accused of tying up and gagging his wife, then forcing her to have sex with him, according to sheriff's reports. Authorities also said that about 2 a.m. Tuesday, while his wife and 3-year-old son were in the house, the man turned on the gas inside and threatened to kill himself by holding up a lighter.
The man is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center. No bond amount or court date had been set Tuesday.
Dayton office tower, opened in '89, for sale
DAYTON, Ohio -- A 20-story downtown office tower that opened in 1989 and was once peddled to the state is for sale.
J.P. Morgan Investment Management Co., owner of 1 Dayton Centre since 1995, is selling the building. La Salle Partners has been hired to find a buyer.
In 1992, the state turned down a city proposal to use it for state offices.
At the end of last year, the building had a 64 percent occupancy rate. But this year, one of the building's biggest tenants moved out and another significantly reduced its space.
Two liquor licenses suspended by state
Two area lounges will be suspended later this month for allegedly selling alcohol to patrons under 21, according to the Ohio Liquor Control Commission.
The two establishments are Delhi Musical Lounge at 4862 Delhi Pike, Delhi Township, and Dacey's Yacht Club at 115 W. McMillan St., Clifton Heights.
Delhi Musical Lounge is expected to be suspended from selling alcohol for 30 days, from Oct. 28 through Nov. 27, according to the commission. Dacey's Yacht Club was issued two separate suspensions and is expected to be suspended from Oct. 28 to Dec. 27.
In March, agents with Ohio Liquor Control cited the Delhi lounge for allegedly selling and furnishing alcohol to persons under 21 and selling beer at a fixed price for an unlimited quantity. The Clifton Heights club was found in violation of liquor regulations for allegedly selling and furnishing alcohol to persons under 21 in March and April.
New surgery director at Children's Hospital
Children's Hospital Medical Center has named a new director of pediatric surgery -- Dr. Richard Azizkhan, formerly surgeon-in-chief at the Children's Hospital in Buffalo.
Dr. Azizkhan will start his new post Dec. 1. He replaces Dr. Moritz Ziegler, who resigned earlier this year to become surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital in Boston.
Dr. Azizkhan had been in Buffalo since 1993, and before that he was chief of pediatric surgery at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. In 1997, he was involved in an international effort to re-build health care services in Bosnia.
Christ Hospital first for third straight year
Christ Hospital was named Greater Cincinnati's "most preferred hospital" for overall health care services for the third straight year by Modern Healthcare, a national trade journal.
The honor, announced in the magazine's Oct. 12 edition, is based on a national telephone survey that asked several questions to 170,000 households in 93 cities. Questions included which hospital residents would choose first for care, which hospital has the best doctors and nurses in town, and which has the best reputation.
"We are pleased to receive this recognition, because it is from the consumer," said Claus von Zychlin, senior executive officer at the hospital.
Athenaeum of Ohio graduation Sunday
The Athenaeum of Ohio will hold its annual commencement exercises at 3 p.m. Sunday in the school's Chapel of St. Gregory the Great on Beechmont Avenue, Mount Washington.
Sister Margaret Anne Dougherty, president of Chatfield College, will deliver the commencement address.
Eighteen people will graduate with master's degrees in divinity, religion and pastoral counseling. Twenty-nine others will be awarded certificates of lay ministry.
The Athenaeum of Ohio is the graduate school of theology sponsored by the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. It provides training and formation for priests and lay people.
Lawyers say O'Connor is Judge of the Year
Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge John O'Connor was named "Judge of the Year" Tuesday by the Trial Lawyers Association.
Association officials said they selected Judge O'Connor because he is "fair and hard-working." They also praised his efforts to quickly move cases through the court system.
Judge O'Connor joined the common pleas bench in 1992 after serving as a judge in municipal and juvenile court.
The association, a professional organization for lawyers, presents the award each year.
