CINCINNATI — Students, staff and community members expressed their frustration over the possibility of consolidating four schools at Monday night's Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education meeting. The board discussed but did not vote on any measures.
Nearly 300 people attended the meeting in person and close to 600 online, according to the school board.
The board evaluated the consolidation of South Avondale Elementary and Rockdale Academy, as well as a possible merger between Frederick Douglass School and Evanston Academy.
"We have concerns the merger may dampen this and derail these children's health and wellness that we have worked so hard at doing the past 20 years,” said Dr. Lisa Crosby, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Cincinnati Children's Hospital.
One Walnut Hills resident said she was concerned there would be no more neighborhood elementary schools in her area if this happened.
"Not to mention Walnut Hills has closed three elementary schools over the past 40 years maybe, so now we'll not only become a food desert, now we're an elementary school desert,” she said.
Several Walnut Hills community and campus leaders have spoken out against that proposed merger, in which students at Frederick Douglass would be sent to Evanston.
“This is history that is being erased,” said Mona Jenkins, Walnut Hills Area Council President.
Jenkins said school employees and community members were blindsided by the proposal.
“We're especially surprised because Douglass has been doing so well,” said Geoffrey Sutton, chair of the school’s Local School Decision Making Committee (LSDMC).
Sutton said campus and community leaders found out about the proposal last week.
“We're really concerned that these kids are going to have lots of troubles if they're suddenly over at Evanston,” he said. “How are they going to get home?”
Survey results in district documents indicate support for general consolidation plans in the district. 58.5% of respondents were supportive or strongly supportive of consolidating schools, according to data listed in district documents.
However, everyone who spoke about consolidations at the board meeting was not in favor of the decision.
Parents and students also expressed concern over merging Bramble Elementary and John. P. Parker Elementary in Madisonville, as well as moving Spencer Center for Gifted and Exceptional Students.
"Splitting Spencer into three separate schools would eliminate support systems for our students and create challenges trying to plan events and fundraisers at the very minimum,” said Elizabeth Simpson, whose son attends the school.
Woodford Academy staff and parents at the meeting expressed their concerns that their school could be reconfigured into a middle school next academic year.
"It has the only pre-school to sixth grade deaf and hard of hearing unit in the entire district. It also houses five autism units, one preschool disability that houses 12 students,” said Zoe Harvey, who teaches deaf students at the academy.
Jenkins said the group opposing the merger was not part of any conversation ahead of the meeting.
“We should have been a part of the engagement to come to this conclusion or even suggestion or recommendation,” she said.
These recommendations were created by an ad hoc committee that spent 18 months looking into this to create the report. Some people directly called out the school board and superintendent.
"I don't even know if you're sincere or not the way you looking at me now ... you looking at me like yeah, well, well,” one man said to CPS Superintendent Iranetta Wright.
One woman advocating for the school not to eliminate resource coordinators said Wright tried to silence her after she spoke at the last business meeting.
“It’s come to my attention that Superintendent Wright has been doing what she can to stop parents like me from showing up like this. She thinks we don’t need to show up as if we don’t have anything to be fighting for,” said Erin Carpenter, a parent representative on the Local School Decision Making Committee of Kilgour Elementary.
The board did not vote on anything Monday night. Wright and the school board declined to comment after the meeting.
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