DaytonDailyNews.com

DAYTON — A sports program decimated by budget cuts in the last 18 months is making a comeback in Dayton Public Schools, thanks to the district's levy passing Nov. 4.

District officials announced Tuesday that effective immediately, the district is offering boys and girls basketball to students in grades seven and eight. High school students will be able to try out for wrestling and competitive swimming returns to Stivers School for the Arts.

"Sports are a motivation for a lot of kids to come to school; they are resources for student athletes to receive college scholarships," Athletic Director Jonas Smith said. "And middle school sports are feeder programs that teach students the fundamentals to prepare them for high school athletic programs."

Athletic programs returning in the spring are seventh- and eighth-grade boys and girls track and field, high school boys and girls track and field, baseball, softball and boys tennis. In the 2009-2010 school year, students will see the return of high school boys and girls cross country, boys and girls golf and seventh- and eighth-grade football and volleyball.

The sports cuts followed the defeat of a 15.17-mill operating levy in May 2007 that forced the district to make more than $30 million in budget trims.

Issue 52, the 4.9-mill operating levy that passed Nov. 4, is expected to raise about $9.3 million a year.

District leaders said the levy money also will allow the district to eliminate its 22 split classes (two grade levels in a classroom taught by one teacher); maintain successful academic programs, improve student achievement and graduation rates, restore vital educational programs lost to budget cuts and increase parent involvement.

• In other district news Tuesday, the school board agreed to lease one of its Ludlow Street office buildings to Premier Health Partners, the hospital network that includes Miami Valley and Good Samaritan hospitals, among others.

The agreement involves 53,000 square feet of office space at 136 S. Ludlow St. for $486,000 a year for five years. It also includes two nearby parking lots for an annual fee of $24,480.

Buddy LaChance, Premier's director of campus planing and real estate, told the board Premier plans to use the space to accommodate a growing staff and to relieve overcrowding at its headquarters at

40 W. Fourth St.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7408 or agottschlich@DaytonDailyN

ews.com.