BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Students at Hyde Park School would move into Peoples Middle School under a plan Cincinnati Public Schools leaders are considering.
The middle school will close next summer because of declining enrollment and the district's efforts to convert its elementaries into kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools.
Administrators had proposed moving the popular Sands Montessori program out of its dilapidated digs in the West End and into the newer Peoples property in Hyde Park.
But Hyde Park School's facilities are worse, Superintendent Steven Adamowski said at school board committee meetings Wednesday. Moving Hyde Park elementary students to Peoples would be cheaper and more popular, administrators agreed.
Administrators considered three options:
Moving students from Hyde Park School to Peoples. Estimated cost: $105,000.
Hyde Park School, built 98 years ago, received the lowest rating among district schools not recommended for closure in the $697 million facilities master plan, which was released Monday. Moving its students to Peoples -- and recruiting students from Oakley, where many families prefer private schools -- would be the best use of the 29-year-old Peoples property, Mr. Adamowski said.
Open a new K-6 Montessori program at Peoples. Estimated cost: $785,000 in construction and renovation needs, plus $1.7 million annual operating costs to pay teachers and instructional assistants.
Mr. Adamowski said this option would cost too much and further widen the per-pupil spending gap between students in neighborhood and magnet schools. Treasurer Richard Gardner said he expects next week to complete a plan to level per-pupil spending districtwide.
Move the Sands program to Peoples and close the Sands building. Estimated cost: $219,500.
Officials said this option would complicate transportation, cost too much and anger a majority of parents who want to keep Sands where it is.
Mr. Adamowski also suggested that Peoples could remain empty and house students displaced as their schools are renovated or replaced. But some school board members said the Peoples property is too nice to sit empty.
Wednesday's recommendation frustrated several Sands parents, who said a Montessori program must be housed on the east side. The district's schools are divided into quadrants, and each quadrant has one Montessori program. Sands, while in the West End, is included in the east quadrant.
Safety topped Sandy Bens' list of concerns. The Madisonville mother of three said administrators should move the Sands program to a neighborhood with less crime -- otherwise, she'll remove her children to a safer school.
"We do not feel comfortable going down there with our children," said Ms. Bens, adding that broken glass and drug needles litter playgrounds and surrounding property. "We see an opportunity to support our school (by moving it to Peoples), and it's passed by. We can't support you anymore."
Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney agreed that a Montessori program should be housed on the east side.
