NEA chief applauds Belmont success

77 percent drop in crime, academic improvements get national recognition.

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By Dave Larsen, Staff Writer 11:53 PM Monday, September 12, 2011

A reduction in crime and improvement in academic performance at Belmont High School caught the attention of a national education organization.

“What this high school did in one year is amazing,” said National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel.

During the 2008-09 school year, Dayton police were called to Belmont High 184 times, resulting in 62 arrests. A get-tough policy at Belmont led to a 77 percent drop in crime within 1,000 feet of the school in the 2009-10 academic year. Grade promotions and test scores improved over the same period.

“The Belmont of today is vastly different than the Belmont of yesterday,” said David Romick, president of the Dayton Education Association.

Van Roekel kicked off the NEA’s 2011 “Standing Strong for Students” Back-to-School Tour with visits to Belmont and Westwood PreK-8 School in Dayton. Education leaders this week also will visit schools in Evansville, Ind.; Romulus, Mich.; Seattle; Las Vegas; Orlando; and Miami.

Belmont was one of 34 low-performing schools in 16 states chosen by the association’s Priority Schools Campaign to demonstrate the power of union-management collaboration. “The power of that collaboration is evident both at Westwood and here at Belmont,” Van Roekel said.

Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Lori L. Ward credited police and school administrators for creating a positive learning environment at Belmont. “Teaching and learning cannot take place if law and order doesn’t exist,” she said.

National education officials are “paying close attention to the kinds of changes that we see in these schools,” said Van Roekel, who meets monthly with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Collaborative reform efforts like Belmont’s can become models for other U.S. school districts. “One of my jobs following this visit is to share this story and to take that to other places, partly to inspire them about what can be achieved and to talk about the process they used here to get there,” he said.

Contact this reporter at  (937) 225-2419 or  dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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