2013-14 Students’ Home Districts
Clark County:
Greenon 4
Northeastern 1
Tecumseh 6
Greene County:
Beavercreek 78
Cedar Cliff 1
Fairborn 50
Bellbrook-Sugarcreek 5
Xenia 61
Yellow Springs 9
Montgomery County:
Brookville 1
Centerville 20
Dayton 111
Huber Heights 71
Jefferson Twp. 4
Kettering 31
Mad River 29
Miamisburg 7
New Lebanon 2
Northmont 7
Northridge 7
Oakwood 4
Trotwood Madison 14
Valley View 14
Vandalia Butler 6
West Carrollton 9
Miami County:
Troy 1
Bethel 1
Preble County:
Preble Shawnee 1
Shelby County:
Sidney 2
Warren County
Springboro 7
Relocating 3
Total 567
The Dayton Regional STEM School has more than doubled the space it occupies in a former department store since graduating its first class in late spring.
The open-enrollment public school at 1724 Woodman Drive is completing a $4.2 million expansion and renovation of 47,000 additional square feet in a former Gold Circle and Value City store that was built in 1970.
It will have more than 560 students from seven counties in grades six through 12 when classes begin Aug. 14.
The school purchased the 11.25-acre site and vacant 125,000-square-foot store in 2011 for $1.56 million after spending its first two years on one floor of Clark State Community College in Beavercreek. It has operated in about 41,000 square feet of the Kettering building until now.
Except for a the northern end of the building, which it leases to a Dollar General store, the school will now occupy the entire building.
Workers were finishing walls, flooring and furniture assembly last week. Staff, board members and inspectors including Todd Hager, senior project administrator for the Ohio School Facilities Commission, walked the halls, new classrooms and other additions, which include a cafeteria/auditorium, fitness center, glass-walled project room, open spaces designed to spark collaboration and small-group projects, and skylights to boost natural illumination.
Roofing work and a reconfiguration of the parking lot were also part of the project, which was designed by FHP Leading Design. Contractor was Messer Construction.
Although science, technology, engineering and math are the focus, “we teach all subjects here,” said Laurie McFarlin, director of communications and partnerships. Language arts, history, art, fitness, wellness, nutrition, economics, comparative religions, multi-media, social studies, speech and debate, calligraphy, architecture and Chinese are also part of the curriculum or electives.
Gregory Bernhardt, president of the school’s governing board and former dean of the College of Education at WSU, said the new academic year brings “excitement about how far we’ve come.”
Assistant principal Robin Fischer, who has been at the school since it began, said enrollment is up 130 students since last year.
The expansion and improvements to the building “are a culmination of what we envisioned when we started with 90 students. It’s very energizing,” she said.
New assistant principal Hope Strickland comes to STEM from Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton, where she taught physics and chemistry. She was teacher of the year last year in Dayton Public Schools.
“I grew up in Dayton. We used to do our back to school shopping in this building, at Gold Circle,” she said.
“I believe this is what I was meant to do. We didn’t call it STEM then, but that’s what my college entrance exam was about when I was 17 — how we were falling behind other countries in science and math education.”
The school’s annual budget is about $4 million.
“The bulk of our revenue comes from per-pupil funding which flows to us from the student’s home district. We do not receive any levy monies and do not receive any special state monies. The school is also a 501(c)(3) organization, which gives us some options for seeking additional funding from a variety of other sources,” McFarlin said.
“We are affiliated with Wright State University, which provides some infrastructure including email and human resources. We are part of the Miami Valley Research Park. Other partners include the United States Air Force Research Laboratory and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.”
One of seven STEM school in Ohio, Dayton’s is the first to tap into funding from the OSFC.
The school does not charge tuition, but does levy a $150 technology fee.
There are no lockers. “Cubbies” or stacks of open storage cubes are used instead. There are also no grades of D. The scale is A, B, C, F.
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