Wednesday, September 15, 1999
Separate schools for Monroe closer
State board clears way for local vote
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
COLUMBUS — The Middletown/Monroe Schools could be split into two districts as early as next July.
The Ohio State Board of Education on Tuesday allowed for potential creation of a new school district in Monroe. It rejected the recommendation of Susan T. Zelman, Ohio's Superintendent of Public Instruction, and voted 11-6 to put the matter on the March primary ballot.
The action reversed the state board's December 1997 vote to reject a petition by Monroe's Committee on Reviewing Education (CORE) to split the district.
Only residents within the boundaries of the proposed new school district will be allowed to vote on the matter. If it is approved, Monroe will have its own school district July 1 when the new fiscal year begins.
Last year, Monroe voters overwhelmingly passed an advisory issue asking Monroe Village Council to adopt a resolution in support of CORE's efforts.
“I am excited about it. It still hasn't sunk in yet,” said Suzi Rubin, CORE spokeswoman and founding member. “The easy part is behind us.”
The vote to split the Middletown/Monroe Schools was the first time the state board ever agreed to deconsolidate a school district, said LeeAnne Rogers, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Education. If voters approve, the Monroe district will be the first new district to be created in Ohio in more than 25 years.
“Dr. Zelman based her recommendation (against the split) on her concern that they (Monroe) would not be able to support their own schools and a concern about a precedent in deconsolidating school districts,” Ms. Rogers said. “These are a very unique set of circumstances. This is not a vote to open the floodgates.”
Should voters agree to the
split, it would undo the 1954 merger of the Middletown, Lemon Township and Monroe schools that formed the Middletown City Schools, now known as Middletown/Monroe Schools.
The new district would consist of about 1,100 students who live in Monroe. It also would include 85 acres in the Lebanon school district consisting largely of undeveloped land zoned for industry near the Ohio 63-Interstate 75 interchange.
Ms. Rogers said the state resolu tion voted to put CORE's original plan on the ballot.
Middletown/Monroe Superintendent Wayne T. Driscoll said he applauded the efforts of CORE and would begin planning for a smaller district should Monroe voters approve the split in the spring.
“We have a lot of planning to do should a split occur,” Mr. Driscoll said. “What would we do as a singular district?”
Earlier this year, voters rejected a $97.4 million education reform plan that would have reconfigured grade levels, reduced class size, built two new schools, closed five others, and added classrooms to four others, as well as built two new elementary schools. Older sections of Lemon-Monroe High School would have been demolished and rebuilt.
“I have to serve 9,600 students we have now and will continue to do that until that time it is reduced,” Mr. Driscoll said.
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