Fourth of July in Franklin
Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86
Spotted at the Cityfolk Festival
Schools want closer relationship with neighbors
Dayton Public Schools likely to change busing policies to keep students in schools close to where they live.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
DAYTON — Mary Taylor lives half a block from Edison Elementary School, and sees children walking to and from there every school day.
But most of the students attending classes at Edison arrive on buses, a vestige of decades of busing to achieve racial balance in the district's school. And Taylor's own children ride buses to schools in other neighborhoods.
Extras
Debra Braithwaite, deputy superintendent of Dayton Public Schools, said that pattern is likely to change as Dayton builds new schools and returns to a system that will allow most students to attend a school close to home.
And Braithwaite said the district conducted pilot projects at Edison and two other schools last year to try new methods of making schools more closely connected to their communities. Cooperating with the University of Dayton's Fitz Center for Leadership in Community, the district set up "neighborhood school centers" at Edison, Kiser and Fairview elementaries.
Neighborhood school centers are meant to open up the schools to students' parents, other neighborhood residents, community groups and businesses. Each of the schools was paired with a business or agency and was assigned a coordinator tasked with developing programs based at the school buildings to serve the surrounding community.
"Say we determined students in a school were having vision problems," Braithwaite said. "We might try to have the coordinators work with some community resources to help with vision screening and eyeglasses. We might be able to do job counseling for family members. Whatever people in the neighborhoods need."
Amber Rose, neighborhood school coordinator at Kiser, said the project has been well received there. During the school year, the building could remain open until 9 p.m. for programs that brought parents and students from the community together.
Rose said programming included evening workshops for parents and the "Walking School Bus" program to promote safe walking routes to the school.
"It creates programming in the school to get parents to meet each other," she said.
Kiser's community partner is the Salvation Army, and the agency helped some Kiser students spend a week at Camp Swoneky in Oregonia, Ohio, this summer.
Nina M. Scroggins was coordinator at Edison, and she was placed at the school by the Dayton Urban League, Edison's community partner.
She said one of the most successful neighborhood school center programs at Edison last year was a "gender retreat" held at the University of Dayton. Edison has both male and female students, but boys and girls attend classes separately.
During the gender retreat, community leaders met with students to talk about careers and life options. "Our students were so excited that only two girls were absent that day," Scroggins said.
Oasis in the community
Taylor, Edison's neighbor, said she's sad to see the school close. She said the area has problems with drugs and prostitution, and the school "helps keep a positive spirit in the neighborhood."
Artist Willis "Bing" Davis said he's excited about the prospect of having a new school on the Edison site even though the school will be missing from Broadway Street for a while.
"If someone was going to build you a new house, you'd be happy to get out of your old house," Davis said. "There's a tendency to hold on to the past, but this is bringing something to the neighborhood that's going to be a real benefit."
Davis, who has a studio on Third Street a few blocks from Edison, said he's been visiting the school to work with children on art projects for quite a while. He said he's anxious to continue his work when a new Edison building opens on the site in 2009 or 2010.
Davis said he's especially pleased that the building will be a neighborhood center that will be available to the neighborhood during nonschool hours.
"We have to have the mindset that this is going to be an oasis in the community," he said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2395 or jcummings@DaytonDailyNews.com.
