The Columbus Dispatch

11/15/2006

Jennifer Smith Richards

The Columbus Public Schools never said they would stop at 12.

And it doesn’t look like the district will: A task force that picked the 12 schools that were closed last spring has begun meeting again. Meanwhile, enrollment continues to deteriorate in some schools, leaving a handful with fewer than 200 students.

The task force has a new name and slightly different purpose this time around, but officials say it is likely to recommend school closures, perhaps as early as December.

“All of us love our schools. If it was possible, we’d all keep all our schools open, regardless of how many students we have,” said Barbara Hightower-Blake, principal of Moler Elementary. The South Side school has about 190 students, one of the district’s lowest enrollments.

Starting at its meeting today, the Facilities Master Plan Revision Committee will help decide which new programs should be added to Columbus schools, which schools should be renovated or rebuilt as part of the district’s enormous construction project and which should be closed.

Eventually, committee members will use last year’s schoolclosing formula that took into account, among other things, enrollment and the capacity of nearby schools to absorb students. In the past go-round, the panel considered middle schools with fewer than 600 students and elementaries with fewer than 400.

Task-force members include the business and union leaders who were part of last year’s group and a new member, Robyn Taylor, president of the Columbus Council of PTAs. The committee’s co-chairmen are Alan J. Davidson, a former National City Bank executive, and Floyd V. Jones, a senior vice president of The Dispatch Printing Company, which publishes The Dispatch.

“I think the benefit … is that we’ve been educated about the system and a lot of the issues we’re going to be dealing with,” Jones said. “(Our job is) not primarily to look at a consolidation of schools, although it could include, possibly, some consolidation.”

The school district has been shrinking for the past several years, fueled by students’ exodus to charter schools and, more recently, their use of vouchers to go to private schools. Enrollment dipped below 60,000 in the 2004-05 school year, and the district has lost about 3,000 students to charter schools since the past school year. Superintendent Gene Harris has said some parents also were unhappy with school closures, while others were frustrated by the construction project that moved students to temporary buildings.

The rapid losses have left some schools stunned.

This school year, five buildings (not counting a specialneeds school) have 200 or fewer students. Three are operating at less than half of their capacity. Twenty-two lost at least 100 students from last year to this school year.

Medary Elementary, a hulking, castle-like school in the University District, is the district’s smallest school, with 142 students.

It’s operating at about 38 percent of its capacity. Three classrooms are empty.

Teachers, some of whom have only 12 students, say they’re not dwelling on whether the district will shut Medary.

“We don’t talk about that. It’s not something over which we have any say,” said Carol Neague, a special-education teacher. “Worrying about it isn’t going to change it.”

Linden Park Alternative Elementary - which was on the school-closing task force’s “watch list” to possibly close if enrollment kept slipping - is down from about 290 kids four years ago to about 170 now. The school could hold as many as 350 children.

But neither Medary nor Moler nor Linden Park will necessarily close.

Part of the newly revived task force’s charge is to choose where new and innovative programs should go. A separate committee already has suggested that the district try some new things, including technology-focused schools and a high school for high-achieving students. So if the task force thinks Medary would be a great place to start a new program, it could be safe from closure.

“Our focus right now is on identifying the programs and identifying the innovation we want to implement,” said John Stanford, special assistant to the superintendent.

A major part of the task force’s work will be re-evaluating the next phase of the Facilities Master Plan, the project to rebuild or renovate all district schools. The first portion was funded by the state and a $392 million bond issue approved by district voters in 2002.

Already, the district has revamped the plan in light of shifting enrollment, and it’ll do so again before it seeks voter approval of the next phase.

Meanwhile, the schools that have shrunk the most are trying to market themselves to parents. At Moler, Hightower-Blake launched an effort at the beginning of the school year.

“The bottom line was to keep what I already had. I did some promotions about being the best-keep secret in Columbus Public Schools,” she said.

The principal posted fliers, took out ads and touted the high points of coming to a small school.

But for now, the staff must go on about the daily business of teaching children, Hightower-Blake said. The same is true at Medary.

“I’m a lot like (Ohio State University football coach) Jim Tressel,” said Medary Principal Barbara Edwards. “I’m not thinking about next year. I’m thinking about the football game now.”

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com