BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati Public Schools facilities need nearly $700 million in repairs -- twice the amount voters overwhelmingly refused to pay five years ago, district leaders said Monday.
But voters again will be asked to pick up most of the tab, district officials said.
Officials on Monday unveiled the district's long-awaited facilities master plan, a blueprint intended to guide building improvements for the next 15 years. The plan recommends closing 19 schools, replacing 12 of those, and creating five new schools. Administrators expressed frustration that the city's new football and baseball stadiums -- estimated to cost $848 million -- are moving steadily toward completion as decay mounts in the district's 8 million square feet of buildings.
"Ninety percent of our schools are older than the stadium we are replacing," CPS Superintendent Steven Adamowski said. "That conveys a level of disrespect for students, parents and teachers and sets a tone that does not set high standards for academic achievement. We cannot continue to allow these buildings to continue to deteriorate and decay."
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PUBLIC HEARINGS
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The Cincinnati Board of Education will hold four community meetings next month to get input about the preliminary recommendations in the district's facilities master plan.
Nov. 4: 7 p.m., Washington Park School, 115 W. 14th St., Over-the-Rhine.
Nov. 5: 7 p.m., Western Hills High School, 2144 Ferguson Road, Westwood.
Nov. 10: 7 p.m., Peoples Middle School, 3030 Erie Ave., Hyde Park.
Nov. 11: 7 p.m., Chase School, 4151 Turrill St., Northside.
Comments also can be faxed to 475-4863, e-mailed to facmsplnedub.cpsboe.k12.oh.us or mailed to:
Cincinnati Public Schools, Facilities Master Plan, Box 5381, Cincinnati 45201-5381.
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The age of many schools and a continual lack of money for repairs and renovations have left conditions deplorable -- and sometimes unsafe -- for the district's 48,500 students, officials said.
Ohio ranks 50th nationwide in the median age of its school buildings, and many CPS schools are older than the average school in Ohio, Mr. Adamowski said.
Thirty-four buildings in the district are more than 50 years old. That includes 21 schools older than 75 and four older than 100.
Passage of a levy is crucial because the state probably won't allocate enough to pay for the plan, Mr. Adamowski said. Officials declined to say how much they'll seek.
Renovating and replacing 69 elementaries is projected to cost $459 million, while improvements at the district's nine high schools are pegged at $98 million. Construction fees and other related costs would be $140 million.
Administrators admit they face an uphill battle.
They're fighting students' steady exodus to private schools and a projected enrollment decline because of falling birth rates and student transfers.
Birth rates within CPS census tracts fell 24 percent from 1990 to 1996, according to the plan. And many students who start in the district in kindergarten drop out or transfer.
They're also facing a skeptical public.
About 115 parents and community leaders packed Monday night's school board meeting to voice their objections to the plan.
Many complained that the district is moving too fast. Four public hearings on the plan are scheduled next month, and school board members aim to vote on the plan Dec. 7.
Others pleaded for officials to steer clear of changing successful programs and to minimize mobility.
"Schools aren't interchangeable Lego parts," Cincinnati Federation of Teachers President Tom Mooney said. "Under the district's team-based concept, students are supposed to stay together. But under this plan, it's like we're trying to find every possible reason to tear them apart."
Edith Thrower, an NAACP member who ran unsuccessfully for school board last year, agreed: "When you start moving our children around, you start disbanding our communities."
The district cannot continue to give the most money and best teachers to the magnet schools while neighborhood programs languish, added Milton Hinton, president of the Cincinnati branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
"If it's important for you to maintain diversity, the surest way for you to do so is to ensure excellence at all schools," Mr. Hinton said.
But officials stressed that change is overdue.
"We are beyond the level of building maintenance," Mr. Adamowski said. "They have to be rehabilitated and replaced."
The facilities master plan advisory committee -- a volunteer group made up of parents, community and business leaders, CPS staffers and architects from Steed Hammond Paul -- spent 18 months studying the district's 79 schools.
They didn't examine high schools in detail, because administrators are developing strategies to improve poor performance at neighborhood high schools. Those strategies may mean changes in school academic models. Committee members probably will assess high schools facilities from January to March and announce recommendations in April.
The committee discovered that many high schools are not operating to capacity, while many elementaries are crowded.
More than 2,000 students are in modular classrooms and another 1,350 are in substandard space, according to the plan. The district's move to all-day kindergartens will create a need for 200 more classrooms. Fifty preschool classrooms also are needed.
Under the plan, the schools recommended for closure are: Bloom, Fairview, Heinold, Linwood, McKinley, Millvale, North Fairmount, Pleasant Ridge, Roosevelt, Rothenberg, Schiel, Swifton, Vine, Washburn, Washington Park, Windsor, Winton Place and Whittier Annex. Hays and Porter would be combined.
Four new K-8 neighborhood schools would be built in Fairview - University Heights, East Price Hill, West Price Hill and between College Hill and Mount Airy. A new K-8 magnet school would be built on the west side.
All other schools would be renovated, including such upgrades as air conditioning and classroom technology.
In weighing the fate of each school, committee members considered:
- Neighborhood demographic trends and projections.
- Schools' compatibility with the district's K-8 team-based model.
- Building conditions and safety.
- Future capacity and ability to expand.
- Proximity to other community resources.
- Ability to accommodate preschool.
- Cost per student to renovate. A new school would cost $14,840 per student to build; if projected renovation costs topped that, committee members had more incentive to recommend closure.
The committee convened 20 focus groups with students, parents, teachers and adults without children in the district.
They also considered the results of more than 3,000 written and telephone surveys, social service agency research and input from such city agencies as the Cincinnati Recreation Commission and the Cincinnati Health Department.
From that research, they identified 90 "customer values." The values fit into five areas: a team approach to education among teachers, parents and administrators; quality education in neighborhood schools promoting parent and community involvement; a physically and emotionally safe environment; quick, easy access to the best teaching and learning resources; and a commitment to quality facilities that inspire learning.
The ideal school model, committee members decided, would be a kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school enrolling about 630 students where racial balance is maintained.
Besides the levy, the district is counting on a one-time infusion of city and county tax revenues to help pay for improvements, which would take place in the next three to 15 years.
Cincinnati and Hamilton County have pledged $200 million over 20 years. Part of that money will come from revenues generated in a voter-approved stadium-funding deal.
While county leaders agreed on a plan to honor their promise, city leaders are still debating how to do it. At issue is whether to use some of the city's entertainment tax.
The district now spends $8 million a year on maintenance and repairs, just over 2 percent of current budget figures. Facilities master plan committee members recommended that the district earmark 6 percent -- close to $20 million -- of its budget every year for maintenance and repairs.
Voters five years ago soundly rejected a plan for $348 million in school repairs. That amount was just over half the $600 million a 1993 study identified in needed repairs.
