CINCINNATI — A series of sweeping changes to the Cincinnati Public Schools restructuring proposal went before the school board at Monday's meeting.
The proposals appeared to surprise board members who hadn't had a chance to review them before the presentation.
#NOW: Some major concessions/alternatives to the CPS restructuring plan are being considered at tonight’s school board meeting.The board members seem surprised by the options on the table as they weren’t provided in the pre-meeting agenda packet.@WCPO Here they are: pic.twitter.com/cAlRa5z4JS
— Sean DeLancey (@SeanDeLanceyTV) November 19, 2024
A presentation by district officials followed a slate of public speakers calling for the board to reject district restructuring plans, known as Phase 2, led largely by opponents from Clark Montessori High School like Ann Coates.
Coates said her special needs daughter Elsie goes to Clark Montessori.
"She's completely immersed in the education. Montessori is made for every child. That's the whole idea," she said.
Coates was among more than 530 people who signed a petition asking the district to reject plans to move Clark Montessori's seventh and eighth grades into what would be a middle school at the current Woodford High School.
Ahead of Monday's meeting, the Clark Montessori advocates sent board members and district administrators a letter suggesting three alternative plans for the school:
- A third Montessori 7th-12th School: This proposal would use the Woodford building as the site for a third secondary Montessori program that starts with grade 7 and grows annually, following a similar growth model to Clark's when it started with two communities in 1994.
- A third 7th-12th school using a “school within a school” model: This proposal keeps many students in the building (special needs units currently in place at Woodford) while allowing for future growth within a third Montessori secondary environment.
- A sixth Montessori community at Clark: While this is not a preferred solution to the present issue, it is a good-faith effort to develop creative solutions.
District officials, however, presented two alternatives for Clark students to the board for consideration:
- Woodford's specialty education programs would move to another facility as a unit, Woodford would retain grades one through five for an additional year and Clark Junior High would begin with 7th grade only.
- Woodford would merge with Silverton, Woodford would sit vacant for an entire school year and Clark would remain seventh through twelfth grade for the 2026 school year, with 7th grade transition to the Woodford building delayed until Phase 3.
Coates said she was disappointed their proposals weren't included in district presentations.
"I think they didn't read the proposal," she said. "It did have a quick turn-around there."
Other proposed changes to the district's plan included scrapping plans to make Rothenberg Prepatory Academy a Montessori school. Instead, the plan would be to consolidate Rothenberg and Hays-Porter School to allow for the sale of the Ed Center building, moving Project Connect and the Wrap to William H. Taft Elementary School. A broader proposal was also given, allowing all students currently in seventh and eighth grades to stay in their schools instead of moving to a middle school and then coming back in 9th grade.
District officials said the proposal of not moving current seventh and eighth graders could cost the district an additional $3.3 million in redundant teacher positions, however.
Board President Eve Bolton warned that the board had little time to consider further changes.
"We have to make some decision about our plan, whatever phase that may be, by mid-December, and even that's a stretch," she said.
Bolton told us ahead of Monday's meeting she expected a vote around the Dec. 9 meeting.
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