This Week News

Thursday, January 5, 2006

By SUE HAGAN

Staff Writer

Each new year is heralded as a time for reflection and new beginnings, and the superintendent of Columbus Public Schools took some time last week to talk about what’s ahead in 2006.

Beyond the goals she often talks about — particularly, increasing graduation rate and reaching the state “continuous improvement” goal by summer — Superintendent Gene Harris said a major focus will be on ensuring that Columbus schools provide what parents want for their children.

That, she said, means offering attractive educational programs and creating safe, caring environments.

The school district has lost more than 7,000 students to charter schools over the past several years, and with other CPS students being eligible for tuition vouchers to private schools next fall, the fear is that an estimated 5,000 more will leave over the next two years.

“We know there are schools that our parents like,” Harris said. Some of the traditional schools have waiting lists to get in, but the most popular schools are full-lottery, alternative schools.

CPS’ Innovative Schools Task Force has been studying which programs and schools to expand or replicate.

Columbus Alternative High School, where the number of students applying for a ninth-grade slot often equals three times the number of seats, is one of those.

Harris said it is likely that CAHS will accept more students next fall, after McGuffey Elementary closes; the K-5 school currently shares a building with CAHS.

“We wouldn’t fill the whole McGuffey space,” she said. “We want to maintain the integrity of the program.” Still, she said, the school might eventually have 800 students, compared to the current enrollment of 619.

“We wouldn’t add that many next year, though,” she said, adding that a total enrollment for 2006-2007 is more likely to be around 650.

The expansion of Indianola Informal Elementary and Franklin Alternative Middle School also are on the drawing board.

Among about a dozen other proposals, a handful of them are single-gender middle schools; a technology and global-studies school; a lottery school focusing on science, technology and math; and an elementary school that would offer social services to families.

Harris said she plans to present a multi-year implementation schedule for innovative programs by the end of January, as discussions begin on next year’s budget.

On the safety front, Harris said the district has made progress in discussing and introducing programs that will improve the culture at district schools.

An anti-violence summit held in August drew more than 100 educators and community leaders, who said they wanted to help remedy problems in the schools.

“We’ve been working around five themes from that summit,” said Harris. “For one, folks said we need to stick with the facts — get the data out there, even if it is hard to hear.

“Frankly, we were surprised at some of the data,” she said, referring to a study by KidsOhio.org that outlined discipline figures for 2005-2005.

One statistic showed that 60 percent of assaults against students were committed by elementary school students.

“We thought that had to be wrong,” Harris said. ” … But we needed to know it.

” … We also talked about the need to take a comprehensive approach, to empower youth, get to the underlying causes of the problems, and finally, to promote a positive vision for our schools,” she said, outlining the other four themes.

Part of the comprehensive approach involves the Franklin County Juvenile Probation Department. Conceived by members of the department, probation officers are in seven Columbus high schools to work with students who are on probation.

“They intervene when there are issues,” said Harris. For example, an officer’s presence might prevent a student from convincing a handful of his friends to skip school.

Harris said the officers also conduct small discussions on such topics as behavior and academic performance.

Altogether, 18 programs and strategies have been expanded or started, or are in the works.

Some of them are:

• A Family Violence Prevention program being implemented in schools on the near West Side, an area chosen for its high incidence of family violence.

• Peace Works, a program with the Ohio Youth Advocate Program, to prevent gang violence and neighborhood and gun violence.

• An audit of each school, to determined which prevention and intervention strategies have been implemented.

• CPS staff training in January on child abuse prevention, identification and reporting.

• Winners Choice Camps, which were held in October and November. Selected students from each CPS middle and high school attended a two-day, overnight camp, to develop leadership and social skills and to learn how to resist tobacco, alcohol and drugs.

“We’re also working with the teachers’ union on discipline programs for next fall,” Harris said, adding that programs are being planned for numerous locations rather than in a single “discipline school.”

“We don’t want anyone to think we’ll have a thousand unruly students in one school,” she said. Also on the horizon, said Harris, is more work with faith-based organizations, and a parent’s summit.

“Part of the destructive behavior is ignored and even nurtured (by parents),” she said. “That’s prevention. We need to do up-front work with families, before we get to the point that we have to call in the social workers and police.”

Copyright © 2003, This Week Newspapers