Thursday, April 01, 1999
City schools could hire private firm
Edison would run redesigned elementary
BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Public Schools officials are considering hiring the Edison Project, a for-profit educational firm they snubbed last year, to run one of two elementaries set for redesign this fall.
Officials acknowledged their strategy was partly defensive.
The New York-based Edison Project, which runs 51 charter schools nationwide, has applied to open a charter school within district boundaries this fall, which could draw up to 1,000 students out of CPS. Edison representatives visited the school board in March 1998 and suggested forging a partnership, but the board declined.
The Edison proposal was one of two options officials are considering for Parham Elementary in Evanston. The other is direct instruction, a tightly scripted teaching method that stresses practice and repetition.
Administrators also discussed three redesign options for Clifton Elementary — a Montessori program, a “Stu dents First” program reflecting the reforms in the district's strategic plan, or a combination of the two.
Although administrators aimed to pick new programs and principals this month, school board members balked.
In their haste to redesign the two schools, administrators are “building a box and putting the board in it,” school board member Harriet Russell said. “It's my responsibility to know what we're voting on.”
Board member Virginia Griffin agreed: “I want the board involved at a significant moment, not after everything's done and the principals and teachers are assigned.”
Administrators agreed to brief the board further before April 26, the board's next scheduled meeting. A date hasn't been set.
Besides timing, details of the redesign options disturbed some board members.
Catherine Ingram objected to inviting a for-profit firm to run a district school.
Ms. Russell agreed, saying her opposition to Edison remained as firm as when representatives visited last year. “I do not care to be stampeded over a cliff to work with Edison any more now than I did then,” Ms. Russell said.
If approved, Edison would sign a five-year contract with the district and eventually expand the school to 12th grade. The school would have a longer school day and year than other schools.
The Rev. Calvin Harper, pastor of Walnut Hills' Morning Star Baptist Church, applied to the Ohio Department of Education to open an Edison school in Cincinnati this fall. That application could be approved this month; it's not clear whether Edison would still open a charter school if it directs the Parham redesign model.
The Clifton options also sparked worries.
Creating a new Montessori program at Clifton would cost $600,000 — too much for a district in the midst of budget cuts, Associate Superintendent Kathleen Ware said.
But most parents polled in Clifton supported the Montessori option, school officials said. Ignoring that sentiment would worsen the perception that the district officials don't listen to the community, board member Arthur Hull said.
Clifton and Parham were among seven schools identified in December as the district's lowest performers in a new accountability plan aimed at raising student achievement. When redesigned, the schools will get new academic programs, new teaching staffs and new leadership.
Withrow, Woodward and Taft high schools will be redesigned, possibly in the 2000-01 school year, as part of a comprehensive high school plan. The other two schools, Peoples Middle in Hyde Park and Roosevelt Elementary in South Fairmount, will close this summer.
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