News: Concrete Reforms

Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) is about to begin its biggest building plan in a century, a $1 billion reworking that will renovate or replace almost every building the district owns.

The four-phase, 10-year plan — kept under tight wraps until Jan. 9 — calls for 34 rebuilt or new schools and 32 school renovations.

The facilities plan also calls for a new style of pod classrooms. Instead of hallways leading to rooms full of rows of seats — the “factory model” — hallways will lead to four-classroom pods surrounding a central space. Known as the “standards-based model,” this will allow more flexibility in teaching styles and in the variety of subjects that can be taught in all of the rooms. Each classroom will also receive technology upgrades and space for four computers, sinks and other amenities.

The plan represents the physical element of a series of school reforms already started, including restructuring high schools, establishing merit-based pay for teachers, student-based budgeting and a school accountability system.

Schools as old as grandma
Decades of neglect have left CPS’ 74 school buildings with not enough — or, sometimes, too much — heat, “temporary” facilities that are now 20 years old, leaky roofs and a litany of other problems.

“We just about need anything and everything at this point,” says Mike Burson, facilities director for the district.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when about half of the district’s schools were built, CPS cut its maintenance budget in half, according to Burson.

As enrollment declined, building maintenance often took a back seat to teacher salaries, new programs and other higher-priority spending, he says.

A 1993 commission identified $600 million in renovations needed for the district’s buildings. The school board pared the projects down to $400 million, but voters rejected a tax levy to pay for them.

In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting Office ranked Ohio dead last of the 50 states in the condition of its schools. Ohio school buildings were an average of more than 50 years old. Today, CPS schools are an average 59 years old.

This infamous ranking spurred the state to create the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC), which worked closely with CPS to evaluate all of the district’s buildings and come up with the new facilities plan. Work on the plan began in early 2001, not long after Cincinnati voters approved a 6.0-mill, $36 million levy to pay for basic repairs, such as upgrading fire alarms and fixing leaky roofs, and to reduce class sizes.

“That doubled the maintenance budget,” Burson says.

Several factors influenced decisions about which schools to close, renovate or rebuild.

· OSFC standards call for new schools to have numbers based on a balance between neighborhood schools and efficiency of size;

· CPS and OSFC used computers to pinpoint where students live, then targeted locations within walking distance of their homes;

· The state of Ohio will not provide matching funding for school renovations that cost more than 66 percent of the price of building a new school. Sixty-one of CPS’ 74 schools did not meet this requirement;

· Historic value and neighborhood support for a particular school building also received consideration. CPS applied for exemptions to the two-thirds funding rule for 14 buildings, such as Rothenberg Elementary School.

Every eight weeks
Planners separated the project into four phases because the local construction industry can only handle so much work at once. CPS will reevaluate the plan before each phase as new enrollment numbers come in.

If past trends continue, the district’s enrollment will decline by 4,200 students in the next decade — 10 percent of the present student body. But administrators believe massive investment and other reforms will at least slow the decline. If more students enroll, more school space will be needed and the plan will change.

The facilities plan could be the city’s biggest economic development project in the next decade.

“Every eight weeks, a different project will start — for 10 years,” says CPS Superintendent Steve Adamowski.

Administrators have identified ways to pay for about half of the $996.9 million project. About $120 million is expected to come from refinancing old debt. Another $170 million will come from payments from the stadium sales tax.

The OSFC is kicking in about $200 million in matching funds. That’s a rate of 23 percent, based on the state’s funding formula, which is low compared to other urban school districts. Cleveland schools, for example, will receive a 67 percent state match.

CPS fares poorly because the formula is heavily influenced by property values, according to CPS Business Executive Kent Cashell. Cincinnati has relatively high property values, but also has high poverty rates, which aren’t as important in the formula, he says.

Last year CPS unsuccessfully lobbied the state to rewrite the formula. The district will keep trying, but odds are against major formula changes, Cashell says.

The district will need some sort of new tax levy to pay for about half of the project.

This year Cincinnati voters could also receive proposed tax levies for a light rail line and updating the Queen City Metro bus system.

But CPS won’t wait for levy approval to start the building plan. The district will begin the first of 17 projects in late summer or early fall — with or without passage of a levy, Adamowski says.

“If we were unsuccessful, we would keep trying,” he says. “My best hope is that when they see the results, there will be a groundswell of support for it.”

The public will get a chance to respond to the facilities plan during 12 meetings in the next few weeks. Administrators hope the school board approves the plan in May, but unanswered questions remain.

Extensive reworking of school buildings almost surely means the district will have to draw new attendance boundaries for some schools. One possibility is using the plan’s four phases as mini-districts. A student might be able to choose from a few elementary schools, a magnet school and maybe a couple of high schools.

Parents might also wonder why high-performing schools — such as Carthage Elementary School — are recommended for closure when many lower-performing schools aren’t. Adamowski says that the district believes a school’s good performance will transfer to a new building.

The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers didn’t have input into the plan, according to union president Sue Taylor. When Taylor asked Adamowski why, he said the plan was heavily based on an analysis of the district’s numbers.

“I was a little perturbed by his response,” Taylor says.

School board members gave the plan a generally warm reception Jan. 9. Their concerns seemed to focus mostly on the details.

“I want to be sure that we are not just inviting the same old people to participate in the meetings,” said Board of Education member Harriett Russell, chair of the CPS Facilities Committee.

Board President Rick Williams said he thinks the plan will succeed or fail based on the details. The key question for most people will be how the plan effects them, he said.

“I don’t see any insurmountable issues here,” Williams said.

The administration should be careful about balancing the need for magnet and neighborhood schools, according to Williams.

Board member Catherine Ingram cautioned that the plan’s four phases don’t match neighborhood boundaries, which could cause some turmoil.

“I don’t think it’s a done deal, but it’s a nice strong recommendation,” said board member Sally Warner.

Russell, a former Walnut Hills High School teacher, said she would pay close attention to details such as how much storage space each classroom offers — details that can make a difference in teacher performance.

“I’m very impressed with the depth of what has been done,” she said.

Details of the Cincinnati Public Schools Facilities Master Plan
Schools to be renovated North Avondale, Roberts, Sayler Park, Cheviot, Gamble, Chase, College Hill, Roselawn Condon, Woodford, Bloom, Taft, Hartwell, Central Fairmount, Hyde Park, Kilgour, Mt. Washington, Douglass, Parham and Crest Hills elementary schools; Aiken, Clark, Dater, Hughes, Jacobs, Taft, Walnut Hills, Western Hills and Withrow high schools

New schools to be built on new sites Carson, Whittier, Westwood, Heberle, Millvale, East End and Fairview elementary schools, a new high school and the School for the Creative and Performing Arts

New schools to be built on old sites Burton, Rockdale, North Avondale, Quebec Heights, Covedale, Dater Montessori, Midway, Mt. Airy, Pleasant Hill, Schwab, Winton Montessori, Losantiville, Silverton, Hays, Porter, Heinold, Roll Hill, Bramble, Eastern Hills and Parker elementary schools; Shroder and Woodward high schools; and the Academy of World Languages

Schools to be closed Clifton, Schiel, Kirby Road, Winton Place, Swifton, Vine, Washburn, Carthage, North Fairmount, Eastwood, Linwood, McKinley, Sands Montessori and Windsor elementary schools

Schools that CPS might renovate or rebuild Oyler, Rothenburg, Washington Park, Bond Hill, Hoffman and Pleasant Ridge elementary schools

The Plan, by the Numbers
65,000 Number of school-age children eligible to attend Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS)

4,200 Number of children attending the 14 charter schools in the CPS district

42,000 Approximate 2000-2001 CPS enrollment

7,000 Approximate decline in CPS enrollment in the past 10 years

4,200* Anticipated enrollment decline in the next decade

1.8 mill Amount of excess square feet of space CPS has

$3 Annual cost of maintaining each square foot of school space

57.6 Percentage of ninth-graders graduated from CPS high schools in June 2001

79 Number of facilities operated by CPS

74 Number of schools operated by CPS

1876 Year the oldest CPS school was built

1982 Year the newest CPS school was built

62 Number of schools that initially didn’t qualify for state-matched renovation funds under the state’s formula

14 Number of those schools CPS requested and received an exemption for

34 New schools to be built

24 Schools to be rebuilt on the same site

10 Schools to be rebuilt on a new site

32 Schools to be renovated

13 Schools to be closed (including two previously-closed)

$996.9 Estimated cost of the CPS rebuilding plan, in millions

$179 Amount of plan to be provided by the state of Ohio, in millions

4 Number of phases to the plan

10 Number of years the plan will take to finish

$170 The amount, in millions, to be provided through sales tax payments tied to the stadium financing deal

350 Minimum number of students, under Ohio law, each school needs to remain open, unless specifically exempted

*CPS administrators believe changes in the district will reduce the high school dropout rate and draw new students into the district, slowing CPS’ traditional enrollment decline.

Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) is about to begin its biggest building plan in a century, a $1 billion reworking that will renovate or replace almost every building the district owns.

The four-phase, 10-year plan — kept under tight wraps until Jan. 9 — calls for 34 rebuilt or new schools and 32 school renovations.

The facilities plan also calls for a new style of pod classrooms. Instead of hallways leading to rooms full of rows of seats — the “factory model” — hallways will lead to four-classroom pods surrounding a central space. Known as the “standards-based model,” this will allow more flexibility in teaching styles and in the variety of subjects that can be taught in all of the rooms. Each classroom will also receive technology upgrades and space for four computers, sinks and other amenities.

The plan represents the physical element of a series of school reforms already started, including restructuring high schools, establishing merit-based pay for teachers, student-based budgeting and a school accountability system.

Schools as old as grandma
Decades of neglect have left CPS’ 74 school buildings with not enough — or, sometimes, too much — heat, “temporary” facilities that are now 20 years old, leaky roofs and a litany of other problems.

“We just about need anything and everything at this point,” says Mike Burson, facilities director for the district.

In the 1950s and 1960s, when about half of the district’s schools were built, CPS cut its maintenance budget in half, according to Burson.

As enrollment declined, building maintenance often took a back seat to teacher salaries, new programs and other higher-priority spending, he says.

A 1993 commission identified $600 million in renovations needed for the district’s buildings. The school board pared the projects down to $400 million, but voters rejected a tax levy to pay for them.

In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting Office ranked Ohio dead last of the 50 states in the condition of its schools. Ohio school buildings were an average of more than 50 years old. Today, CPS schools are an average 59 years old.

This infamous ranking spurred the state to create the Ohio School Facilities Commission (OSFC), which worked closely with CPS to evaluate all of the district’s buildings and come up with the new facilities plan. Work on the plan began in early 2001, not long after Cincinnati voters approved a 6.0-mill, $36 million levy to pay for basic repairs, such as upgrading fire alarms and fixing leaky roofs, and to reduce class sizes.

“That doubled the maintenance budget,” Burson says.

Several factors influenced decisions about which schools to close, renovate or rebuild.

· OSFC standards call for new schools to have numbers based on a balance between neighborhood schools and efficiency of size;

· CPS and OSFC used computers to pinpoint where students live, then targeted locations within walking distance of their homes;

· The state of Ohio will not provide matching funding for school renovations that cost more than 66 percent of the price of building a new school. Sixty-one of CPS’ 74 schools did not meet this requirement;

· Historic value and neighborhood support for a particular school building also received consideration. CPS applied for exemptions to the two-thirds funding rule for 14 buildings, such as Rothenberg Elementary School.

Every eight weeks
Planners separated the project into four phases because the local construction industry can only handle so much work at once. CPS will reevaluate the plan before each phase as new enrollment numbers come in.

If past trends continue, the district’s enrollment will decline by 4,200 students in the next decade — 10 percent of the present student body. But administrators believe massive investment and other reforms will at least slow the decline. If more students enroll, more school space will be needed and the plan will change.

The facilities plan could be the city’s biggest economic development project in the next decade.

“Every eight weeks, a different project will start — for 10 years,” says CPS Superintendent Steve Adamowski.

Administrators have identified ways to pay for about half of the $996.9 million project. About $120 million is expected to come from refinancing old debt. Another $170 million will come from payments from the stadium sales tax.

The OSFC is kicking in about $200 million in matching funds. That’s a rate of 23 percent, based on the state’s funding formula, which is low compared to other urban school districts. Cleveland schools, for example, will receive a 67 percent state match.

CPS fares poorly because the formula is heavily influenced by property values, according to CPS Business Executive Kent Cashell. Cincinnati has relatively high property values, but also has high poverty rates, which aren’t as important in the formula, he says.

Last year CPS unsuccessfully lobbied the state to rewrite the formula. The district will keep trying, but odds are against major formula changes, Cashell says.

The district will need some sort of new tax levy to pay for about half of the project.

This year Cincinnati voters could also receive proposed tax levies for a light rail line and updating the Queen City Metro bus system.

But CPS won’t wait for levy approval to start the building plan. The district will begin the first of 17 projects in late summer or early fall — with or without passage of a levy, Adamowski says.

“If we were unsuccessful, we would keep trying,” he says. “My best hope is that when they see the results, there will be a groundswell of support for it.”

The public will get a chance to respond to the facilities plan during 12 meetings in the next few weeks. Administrators hope the school board approves the plan in May, but unanswered questions remain.

Extensive reworking of school buildings almost surely means the district will have to draw new attendance boundaries for some schools. One possibility is using the plan’s four phases as mini-districts. A student might be able to choose from a few elementary schools, a magnet school and maybe a couple of high schools.

Parents might also wonder why high-performing schools — such as Carthage Elementary School — are recommended for closure when many lower-performing schools aren’t. Adamowski says that the district believes a school’s good performance will transfer to a new building.

The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers didn’t have input into the plan, according to union president Sue Taylor. When Taylor asked Adamowski why, he said the plan was heavily based on an analysis of the district’s numbers.

“I was a little perturbed by his response,” Taylor says.

School board members gave the plan a generally warm reception Jan. 9. Their concerns seemed to focus mostly on the details.

“I want to be sure that we are not just inviting the same old people to participate in the meetings,” said Board of Education member Harriett Russell, chair of the CPS Facilities Committee.

Board President Rick Williams said he thinks the plan will succeed or fail based on the details. The key question for most people will be how the plan effects them, he said.

“I don’t see any insurmountable issues here,” Williams said.

The administration should be careful about balancing the need for magnet and neighborhood schools, according to Williams.

Board member Catherine Ingram cautioned that the plan’s four phases don’t match neighborhood boundaries, which could cause some turmoil.

“I don’t think it’s a done deal, but it’s a nice strong recommendation,” said board member Sally Warner.

Russell, a former Walnut Hills High School teacher, said she would pay close attention to details such as how much storage space each classroom offers — details that can make a difference in teacher performance.

“I’m very impressed with the depth of what has been done,” she said.

Details of the Cincinnati Public Schools Facilities Master Plan
Schools to be renovated North Avondale, Roberts, Sayler Park, Cheviot, Gamble, Chase, College Hill, Roselawn Condon, Woodford, Bloom, Taft, Hartwell, Central Fairmount, Hyde Park, Kilgour, Mt. Washington, Douglass, Parham and Crest Hills elementary schools; Aiken, Clark, Dater, Hughes, Jacobs, Taft, Walnut Hills, Western Hills and Withrow high schools

New schools to be built on new sites Carson, Whittier, Westwood, Heberle, Millvale, East End and Fairview elementary schools, a new high school and the School for the Creative and Performing Arts

New schools to be built on old sites Burton, Rockdale, North Avondale, Quebec Heights, Covedale, Dater Montessori, Midway, Mt. Airy, Pleasant Hill, Schwab, Winton Montessori, Losantiville, Silverton, Hays, Porter, Heinold, Roll Hill, Bramble, Eastern Hills and Parker elementary schools; Shroder and Woodward high schools; and the Academy of World Languages

Schools to be closed Clifton, Schiel, Kirby Road, Winton Place, Swifton, Vine, Washburn, Carthage, North Fairmount, Eastwood, Linwood, McKinley, Sands Montessori and Windsor elementary schools

Schools that CPS might renovate or rebuild Oyler, Rothenburg, Washington Park, Bond Hill, Hoffman and Pleasant Ridge elementary schools

The Plan, by the Numbers
65,000 Number of school-age children eligible to attend Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS)

4,200 Number of children attending the 14 charter schools in the CPS district

42,000 Approximate 2000-2001 CPS enrollment

7,000 Approximate decline in CPS enrollment in the past 10 years

4,200* Anticipated enrollment decline in the next decade

1.8 mill Amount of excess square feet of space CPS has

$3 Annual cost of maintaining each square foot of school space

57.6 Percentage of ninth-graders graduated from CPS high schools in June 2001

79 Number of facilities operated by CPS

74 Number of schools operated by CPS

1876 Year the oldest CPS school was built

1982 Year the newest CPS school was built

62 Number of schools that initially didn’t qualify for state-matched renovation funds under the state’s formula

14 Number of those schools CPS requested and received an exemption for

34 New schools to be built

24 Schools to be rebuilt on the same site

10 Schools to be rebuilt on a new site

32 Schools to be renovated

13 Schools to be closed (including two previously-closed)

$996.9 Estimated cost of the CPS rebuilding plan, in millions

$179 Amount of plan to be provided by the state of Ohio, in millions

4 Number of phases to the plan

10 Number of years the plan will take to finish

$170 The amount, in millions, to be provided through sales tax payments tied to the stadium financing deal

350 Minimum number of students, under Ohio law, each school needs to remain open, unless specifically exempted

*CPS administrators believe changes in the district will reduce the high school dropout rate and draw new students into the district, slowing CPS’ traditional enrollment decline.

This article appears in Jan 16-22, 2002.