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Springfield Schools seek federal money

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By Megan Gildow, Staff Writer 8:43 PM Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Springfield City Schools is preparing to seek federal funding that would require approved buildings to adopt one of four turnaround models, said Superintendent David Estrop.

The state of Ohio is in the running for three types of competitive federal grants — Race to the Top, School Improvement Grants and phase two of the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, said Scott Blake, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education.

“They’re all kind of tied together with the connection being this turning around of struggling schools,” Blake said.

All three grants required states to identify the “lowest-achieving schools” that would need to adopt one of four plans:

• Turnaround Model: replaces the principal and rehires no more than 50 percent of the staff.

• Restart Model: converts a school or closes and reopens a school under a charter school operator, a charter management organization or educational management.

• School Closure Model: closes the school.

• Transformation Model: replace the principal, institute comprehensive instructional reforms, increase learning time and create community-oriented schools and provide operational flexibility and sustained support.

A list of schools was developed based on performance in math and reading and progress in math and reading over the last five years and schools were placed in three tiers, according to the ODE. Tier I and II schools will be funded first to adopt one of the four models, and Tier III schools will compete in a grant process for the remainder of the funding, said Blake.

Keifer Alternative School is Springfield’s only Tier I school; Fulton, Kenton, Kenwood, Lagonda, Snowhill, Snyder Park and Warder Park/Wayne elementary schools, Schaefer, Hayward and Roosevelt middle schools and Springfield High School are Tier III, according to the ODE.

“We are in the process of writing a grant trying to compete to get up to $500,000 for Keifer,” said Estrop. “We’re looking at submitting grants of $50,000 each for our other schools.”

Springfield would likely choose the transformation model option and may not have to replace principals because of high turnover recently, he said.

“It’s been rather significant, starting with the turnover in the superintendency, executive staff, building level administrators and now the staff,” said Estrop. “If anything, it may be that Springfield’s interests would be served by a period of stability.”

The plans do allow for an intervention option that lets a new principal — one hired within the last two years — to remain in place, said Blake.

As a Tier I school, Keifer is most likely to receive funding if Ohio is selected for any of the grants.

“In the case of the Tier I school, Mr. (Gary) Cross is a new principal there,” said Estrop. Principals at Kenton, Lagonda, Warder Park/Wayne, Schaefer and SHS would also fall under the exemption and Snowhill Elementary will be looking for a new principal next year when Rita Lane retires at the end of the year.

The efforts fit in with what Springfield schools is already trying to do, said Estrop, pointing to current efforts at Springfield High School to identify reforms in academics, climate and culture.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0373 or mgildow@coxohio.com.

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