Monday, August 07, 2000
School shuffle increases options
By Andrea Tortora
The Cincinnati Enquirer
More than 2,700 Cincinnati Public Schools students on the city's west side will report to new schools, new programs and, in some cases, temporary quarters when the bell rings Aug. 29, the start of fall classes.
It's Cincinnati's answer to parent demands for more options close to home: traditional neighborhood schools, expanded Montessori opportunities and top-notch college preparatory high schools.
The move is an attempt by the Tristate's largest urban school district to compete for students with the surging number of private, religious and charter schools, as well as home schooling.
The sweeping changes also provide a peek at what's in store for the entire Cincinnati school system.
Grades K-8 are being consolidated in neighborhood schools and the dis trict is working to give each part of the city the same successful educational choices made wildly popular by magnet schools.
In the district's first major construction project since Roselawn Condon was built in 1981, renovations totaling more than $5 million and plans to expand and modify Dater Junior High, Western Hills High and Carson Montessori will set the groundwork for four expanded schools next year.
It's complicated, but essentially:
• Western Hills will gain 16 classrooms when its 17,000-square-foot basement is renovated.
• A college preparatory high school will open in the former vocational wing at Western Hills. This “school within a school”
will ultimately be known as Gilbert A. Dater High.
• A traditional neighborhood K-8 school opens this year in temporary quarters at the former Dater Junior High on Boudinot. Next year, the school moves to the Carson building on Glenway and will be known as Carson School.
• Carson Montessori students continue to study in the Glenway building as well as in rented space in a church nearby while the Boudinot building is refurbished. After the move, the school will be known as Gilbert A. Dater Montessori.
That's a lot of change for a lot of families — and it's exactly what the community asked for.
“It's not gonna be easy this year, but it should be pretty smooth after that,” said Mike Brestel, whose daughter Rebecca attends Carson Montessori. “Most everyone realizes this is a positive move. It will be a pain for a year, and then it will be much better.”
The pain will mostly mean crowded spaces where — in the case of Dater Junior High — more than one school will share the same building. Dater teachers will give up 15 classrooms to the Carson School and travel room to room. Some Dater teachers will hold classes in the auditorium or cafeteria.
Using rented space
Carson, where classes are already held in closets and cafeteria space, is out of room for the popular Montessori program. Two classes of students will meet in rented space at Price Hill Baptist Church, two doors down from Carson. The extra space will house students ages 6-9, who will walk to the main building for lunch and other activities.
Despite all the maneuvering, parents and community members are pleased.
They spoke, and Cincinnati Public Schools administrators listened.
The changes take effect over two school years because of delays in construction plans and the school district's desire to complete the implementation of K-8 neighborhood schools in all parts of the city.
The reasons for moving from K-6 schools are twofold:
• Reduce drop-out rates, which traditionally skyrocket when students make the transition to larger, more impersonal high schools.
• Parents' demands to keep kids close to home in neighborhood schools.
Pride in the neighborhood translates into pride in the schools. That is especially true on the city's west side.
School loyalty is almost palpable. Everyone seems to have a connection to the schools, including construction manager Russ Alford. To him, the renovations are more than a job. His mother is a graduate of Western Hills High, known as West High for short.
When Mr. Alford worked with community members on plans for the new Dater High School, one thing was made clear: “People here are devoted to their side of town and their schools,” he said.
In fact, residents are so interested in tracking the renovations at West High that the school district will soon launch a Web site with weekly picture updates of the work's progress, as well as information about the project's costs and schedule.
There will be a link to the site from the Cincinnati Public Schools Web page at www.cpsboe.k12.oh.us.
The renovations are being paid for as part of the county's stadium deal.
To encourage voters to finance the new riverfront stadiums with a sales tax, taxpayers were promised money would be given to fix schools in the cash-strapped district. It calls for $120 million in payments to Cincinnati Schools by the city and Hamilton County in lieu of property taxes on the stadiums. The district will receive $5 million a year for the next 20 years.
The west-side renovations represent only a tiny portion of work needed at the district's 76 schools. The buildings need more than $700 million in renovations and repairs after years of budget-cutting in maintenance and upkeep.
Kent Cashell, district business executive, said even West High needs more work than is planned. Repairs and restorations should be made to the school's many windows and the roof needs work.
The school was built in 1928, with an addition in 1936. What's being renovated is a vocational wing built in the 1970s.
“This is not the comprehensive renovation of Western Hills,” Mr. Cashell said.
Still, west-side residents like Marita Zenni are proud of their neighborhood and want to keep their schools close to home.
“We are very loyalist here,” said Mrs. Zenni, a West High graduate and mother to two West High graduates: Michael, 31, and Kari, 27.
Charter school considered
Parents and the Dater community wanted so adamantly to keep their programs on the west side that they proposed changing Dater to a charter school before the current plans were developed.
“There's always been a natural progression from Dater to West High anyway,” Mrs. Zenni said. “We're all just kind of going home.”
In many ways, that's exactly what's happening, said Beverly Eby, Dater's principal.
Western Hills High housed seventh- to 12th-grade students before Dater was built in 1967. With Dater students moving back to the West High campus:
• Siblings will be reunited.
• Dater students who play on West High sports teams will be on the same campus as their peers.
• Dater teachers will get to see the end result of their efforts.
The changes are somewhat typical for a school system, said Michael Burson, the district's facilities adviser.
“In education, you go around in circles,” Mr. Burson said. “Here we're turning the tables back again.”
Swapping schools and making physical changes to the buildings brings benefits beyond educational choice, said Tom Shaver, West High principal.
Taxpayers won't have to pay for a new building. Instead, all available educational space is being put to full use.
Parents get more choices. They can send their students to Dater, West High, a traditional neighborhood elementary school or a Montessori school.
And for those students interested in a classic college prep program, Dater plans to expand its offerings as students get older. That means adding classes for students in 11th and 12th grades.
“What the district is doing is listening to the customers,” Mr. Shaver said. “With all the things tied into choice like vouchers and charter schools, CPS is listening to constituents and delivering what they want. It used to be that if you lived in certain areas, you didn't have that choice.”
Could be fun
For Dater graduates Crystal Weaver and LaMar Lewis, the changes are “odd.” The two students will start ninth grade at West High in August, following the traditional transition for high school in this neighborhood, rather than remain at Dater.
“It'll be odd to see the Dater folks at the high school,” Crystal said.
LaMar said having a second school on the West High campus could be fun, especially if students have brothers and sisters already attending West High.
“That way everyone's right there,” he said.
For the Montessori program, which will move to the Dater building, the changes are a much-needed opportunity for growth. The new space means the school gains athletic fields, an auditorium and the possibility to expand classes for students to seventh and eighth grades.
Principal Shirley Stephens said the changes give the school room to grow.
“In the past we've had so many west-side families that applied to come to Carson but could not get in,” Ms. Stephens said. “(At Dater) we will have more opportunities for students to attend.”
The school anticipates serving more than 550 students in its new building, which can hold up to 700 students. For Dater Principal Mrs. Eby, moving to the West High building will be like going back in time. Her parents graduated from West High, as did many parents of her students.
“We've got to be change masters,” Mrs. Eby said. “We must be able to look at the whole picture, and here we're looking at the west side.
“For those of us who are west-side natives, the more things change, the more they become what they used to be.”
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