Topic: Anyone with young children (school aged) that live in Ohio downtowns?

[cincyimages]

I was curious if any of our members or lurkers of this board have children and live downtown in one of Ohio's major cities?  As a parent of a younger child who is currently enrolled in the #6 ranked school district of the state, I constantly get questioned about my desires to live in the city and how it would work with a 7 year old daughter.  While I haven't made the jump, I am curious to hear from people that have. 

For instance, say I lived in a condo in downtown Cincinnati, are there school buses that would bus my child to school?  What schools do children of downtown Cincinnati attend?  I know it is the Cincinnati Public School district but what exact schools from elementary to High School (Taft High I am guessing)? Also what private schools would provide busing service for downtown students?  With a young girl, what private schools would residents recommend?  School is a very important concern for a parent with a young child, and I don't want to deprive my child of a great education for my own selfish desires to live in the city so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  Also what are the child care options for before & after school?  I believe there is a day care on Central Parkway and one in Scripps Center although I don't know if you have to work in the building to enroll your child in that day care facility.

Examples from other Ohio cities are welcome too.

[Jskinner]

We live downtown, with small children and have several friends raising children either here or in Mt. Adams or in Clifton. 

You have to choose, Public (probably a magnet school), Private (probably Catholic), or Charter.  I never considered Charter, because they are untested.  I cannot afford Catholic, but I have several friends who live in the city who sent kids to Mercy Montessori in Walnut Hills, and they love it (no bus transportation). 

There are 4 quadrants for the Cincinnati Public Montessori Magnets (Sands, North Avondale, Dater, Winton Place)  Downtown is in Sands Quadrant. Sands is an excellent school on a great campus, however Sands is far away (in Mt. Washington). The schools will provide bus transportation.  You will not get yellow bus transport if you go to an out-of-quadrant school. 

Once you get into the system, you will find that there are often before and after-school options at the school.  Also, Sands and Dater have excellent preschools, although you have to pay and you have to provide transportation.  The kindergartens are all full-day, the preschools are half-days with optional extended day.  Some of these are hard to get in, so you must learn when applications can be made.

All of the Montessori schools are very good.  Many Sands graduates go onto either Walnut Hills HS or Clark Montessori HS (in Hyde Park). 
Dater is also developing their own Montessori HS for the Westsiders.  Dater is establishing a great reputation.  They want to be the Walnut Hill of the Westside.

We decided on attending Fairview German Language school because it is closer (in Clifton), is a city-wide magnet school (you get bus transport to it from anywhere in the district), and it has a very diverse (not just black and white) and high-achieving student body.  After 6 years at Fairview your child can proceed to Walnut Hills, SCPA or a Catholic HS.  Also there are some other magnet schools to choose from, such as Schiel (on short Vine, soon to be incorporated into the new SCPA)  and other language and Padeia schools.

I work with many parents who have no choice in public schools.  If you live in Colerain, your child must go to Colerain Elementary and Colerain HS or go to a Catholic School.  I for one am very excited about choices CPS offers and the education my children are starting. 

I also would be interested in hearing from other parents, especially if your children have already been in the system for many years or have recently graduated.

[3231]

I don't have as much to add, but..

My wife and I just had our first child 3 1/2 months ago.  When we buy a home, it will either be in Cleveland or Cleveland Hts.  Schools will not factor into our decision.  I grew up in the Catholic schools and am comfortable with that system.  Additionally, tuition cost should not be a problem.  If we settle down in Ohio City (50-50), I would like to send my child to Urban Community School. It is an affordable, liberal and diverse school that is run by a very progressive nun.  Tuition is on a sliding scale, with a pay-as-you-can system.  I would not consider the Cleveland public schools as an option.  I will not choose the catholic school system because of religion, but I will select it because it is the best option.

Inner-city catholic schools are mostly non-catholic.  My uncle is a priest.  When he was a pastor in Akron, 27 of the 29 eighth graders were not catholic.

[cincyimages]

Thanks for the replies, I looked up some of the schools and was surprised to see such a wide range of performance scores.  Unfortunately private schools aren't listed.  I was told that St. Ursula is the elementary school my daughter would go to if we sent her to private Catholic.

Fairview Elementary scored in the "Effective" category with 10 out of 14 indicators and a score of 95.5 out of 120.
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2004-2005/BUILD/011247.PDF

Dater didn't score too well and is in the "Continuous Improvement" category and met 5 out of 14 indicators and scored 84 out of 120.
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2004-2005/BUILD/005025.PDF

Clark scored an "Effective", met 8 out of 10 indicators and scored 98.3 out of 120.
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2004-2005/BUILD/098590.PDF

Sands is also in the "Continuous Improvement" category and met 5 out of 14 indicators and scored 87 out of 120.
http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=6228.0;topicseen

North Avondale is in the "Effective" category and met 9 out of 14 indicators and scored 90.2 out of 120.
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2004-2005/BUILD/026054.PDF

Taft High School on Ezzard Charles is so bad that they are in "Academic Emergency"
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2002-2003/BUILD/036830.pdf

Walnut Hills High School scored in the "Excellent" category and met 10 out of 10 indicators and scored 110.8 out of 120.
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2004-2005/BUILD/039073.PDF

If I wanted to send my kid to Walnut Hills High School and we lived downtown, I could do it but I would have to drive them to the school even with Taft High School right down the road?


Also just for the sake of it I looked up Pleasant Ridge & Hyde Park schools.  I was surprised to see them performing so poorly.  Any reason for this?  I thought Pleasant Ridge & Hyde Park schools would be two of the top performing.

Pleasant Ridge Elementary is in the "Academic Emergency" category and met only 1 out of 17 indicators and scored 68.2 out of 120
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2004-2005/BUILD/030312.PDF

Hyde Park Elementary is in "Continuous Improvement" category and met 2 out of 17 indicators and scored 67.9 out of 120.
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2004-2005/BUILD/017244.PDF

[Jskinner]

The scores give you a snapshot, but are not the whole picture.  I can tell you from visiting the Montessori Schools and Fairview, that they are excellent.  The poor scores don't reflect the teachers as much as they reflect that some of the students come from disadvantaged families and many of those students cannot bring their scores up (my opinion). 

I believe your child will get bus transportation to Walnut Hills, though that is too many years away to worry about yet.

Pleasant Ridge and Hyde Park parents who can send their children to magnets or private schools (Nativiy, St. Mary's).  Pleasant Ridge school is currently being demolished, and the neighbors are pushing for a "neighborhood montessori" to be built as a replacement.

St Ursula is a girls high school.  No grade school there.  Purcell Marian is another HS coed and is right around the corner.  There are many Catholic grade schools, but being a parishoner with regular contributions is expected.  Wimwar is correct that the Catholics operate inner-city schools that are mostly attended by tuition subsidized non-catholics.  Corryville Catholic, St. Francis Seraph (OTR), and St. Joseph (west end) are examples of this.  Annunciation in Clifton is probably the closest non-CISE catholic grade school, but  I don't know much about it.  I heard it was very conservative.

[RiverViewer]

Most Catholic churches will give a discount for parishoners, which means church attendance, but not necessarily regular contributions.  They may ask you to drop your envelope in the basket, just to maintain records that you're there every week, but they couldn't care less if there's nothing in it because you can't afford it.  I know that was the explicit policy of one church I worked at for a year or so, and from everything I've heard while "on the inside," I've never heard of a place where that wasn't the case.  Other parishoners are happy to pick up the slack by subsidizing tuition (or other churches in better-off neighborhoods are), as long as folks are following through on their end by going to church.

[Jskinner]

Bump

I would like to continue the discussion of the quality of education in Cincinnati Public Schools, if anyone else is interested.  My personal experience has so far been fantastic.  I am so happy with our choice to go with CPS.

My son loves Fairview German Language School.  The school recently moved to the "excellent" category.  The teachers IMHO are excellent.  Having been raised in the Catholic school system, I can't believe that we get this kind of education tuition free!  I have met many of the parents in my son's classroom, and found at least two others that are Cincinnati Catholic school graduates, which makes me wonder if this could be the start of a trend, especially with the Catholic school tuitions going up so high.  One year at Ursula is approaching $9,000 and St. X is almost $10K. 

One small negative is the bus service.  After our son's first day on the bus, he came home singing rap music, and told us that they play loud music on the bus, "just like at the pool".  The bus driver was playing 101.1 the WIZ on the trip, and we have tried to put a stop to this.  The principal told us that the music problem was one reason they switched from Peterman busses to Riggs busses this year, and was upset that the issue was re-surfacing.

Our school experience has been so good so far, that I would have to say that it is now one reason we would hesitate to ever move outside of the city limits.  We would hate to lose the choices we have in CPS! 

[Jeff]

The Fairview German Language School?  I'd be pretty suprised if they actually taught classes in German, so I am wondering about the name...do they have some sort of foreign language emphasis there, where the kids are taught German as part of the curiculum?

[Quimbob]

yes
There is also a Lutheran school, Concordia, on Central Parkway if you are interested in a non Catholic parochial school.
I am not a parent, my nephew went to Fairview & my niece went to Concordia
Neither is currently in jail.

[ColDayMan]

The Fairview German Language School?  I'd be pretty suprised if they actually taught classes in German, so I am wondering about the name...do they have some sort of foreign language emphasis there, where the kids are taught German as part of the curiculum?

Yes, they teach German there.

[Jskinner]

^ By the end of Kindergarten, the children can understand and speak simple sentences in German.  After only 2 months, these 5-year olds can count to 30, know the colors, body parts and several songs in German. They say that in upper grades, entire classes are taught in German.  We'll see.  In addition they have a band, suzuki music lessons, and soccer.  I love their old building too.  I would like to post photos, but don't know if positng pictures of other classmates is proper without their parents permission.

I thought Concordia was just preschool.  Does it go to 6th grade?

Yesterday after the bus ride, my son was saying:   "700 WLW, we don't we don't we don't mess around, hey".  So I guess the bus driver switched stations!

[Quimbob]

crap, I meant to post a link
http://www.concordia-cincy.org/schoolsite.php
Concordia goes up to 8th grade
Then, I guess, you go to the Luthie boarding school in Indiana.
Ink probably knows something about this.

[Magyar]

Yesterday after the bus ride, my son was saying:   "700 WLW, we don't we don't we don't mess around, hey".  So I guess the bus driver switched stations!

We need to switch this over to the 700 WLW thread.  I can still do 75% of all the 'Sports or Consequences' cheers (12 years after I last listened to it)

[cramer]

^It's a long way off, but in my day school route Metros serve Walnut Hills and other high schools.

[kingfish out of water]

Back to topic, I have two young kids, 1 and 3. The 3 year-old just started a part-time preschool up in Clintonville (Columbus proper, a couple of miles north of downtown).

In a couple of years, who knows.

There's a Montessori school one block away, and if we could swing that financially, we would. Problem is we're a one-income household. There are quite a young families down here in Italian Village with kids, but they're dual corporate income households, so it's no big whoop to drop $8,000 for school on top of what they're paying in taxes.

The alternative, Columbus Public Schools, is not a welcoming option. The system has a long way to go.

I've waxed rhapsodic here on UO about kids in the city. But I've also waxed defeatist about the blindspot urbanism holds for the public schools.

In Columbus you have very nice, affluent urban neighborhoods, but it's easy to see that the students in the neighborhood public school don't match the people living in the $300K house next door.

I wish there were a realistic short-term solution for fixing the public schools in urban areas. But such a task takes generations, and the people who have the most to contribute in terms of outside experience and institutional savvy and organizational tenacity are the first ones to send their kids to non-public schools.

People just don't like to gamble with their childrens' future. Imagine that.

So, short of a miracle of some sort, we will most likely move from Columbus proper to one of its nearburbs--Arlington, Grandview, Bexley--nah, not Bexley.

[Jskinner]

^Does Columbus school district have magnet school programs?

[edale]

Well there are a few kids from every school at Summit (elementary, middle, upper schools) that live downtown.  I think from Jr. High and up the kids ride the metro which has a stop right at the corner of Madison and Grandin or their parents drive them.  As for public highschools, Walnut really has a great reputation and a fair ammount of non-district kids attend and pay tuition.  Also, check the data for Kilgour Elementary...I think that's where most of the Hyde Park and Mt. Lookout kids go.

[kingfish out of water]

^Does Columbus school district have magnet school programs?

They do, but I've heard conflicting testimony on their quality. One of my first contacts here in town--a city councilmember--gave them high marks (her son attended one), but neighbors have been less enthusiastic. Definitely worth looking into deeper, though.

So, this German school your pups are going to--it's a magnet school?

[Jskinner]

^yes, Fairview German is a district-wide magnet.  Then there are 4 quadrant montessori magnets, plus some other magnet schools for other languages and teaching methods (like the Padeia method, for example).  You may want to do a little research because the process took some time to get in.  First we called to get a tour.  We toured 4 schools when our son was 3!  (Fairview German, Sands Montessori, Dater Montessori, Schiel Arts)  We started this early, because the Montessori schools have preschools also.  The advantage there is that you can pay to go to the preschool when your child is 4, then he will automatically be accepted into kindergarten. 
Then we researched the school report cards here:
http://www.ode.state.oh.us
The school we went with is rated excellent and seemed more racially balanced than others, plus it was the closest of the magnet schools to downtown.

Then we applied for the magnet program a full year before the kids would start there.  Once one child is in, then the siblings have priority for acceptance, so their was some pressure to make the right decision early.

[kingfish out of water]

Great advice. Danke schön, Herr Skinner. I'll let you know what we learn.

Urban Parents Unite!

[cincyimages]

Congratulations to Fairview Elementary School.  Here is the report card:
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2005-2006/BUILD/011247.pdf
Map of Fairview Elementary School


Kilgour Elementary School in Hyde Park also got an Excellent Rating.  Here is the report card:
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/reportcardfiles/2005-2006/BUILD/019000.pdf
Map of Kilgour Elementary School


I was told there was another "excellent" rating elementary school in the city of Cincinnati, perhaps in Mt. Washington.  Are there any others?

[Jskinner]

^Sand Montessori has a very loyal following and is a great school that was moved from the West End to Mt. Washington.  However, for whatever reason they have not been able to get into the "excellent" category.

I should add, that for downtown residents who want Montessori education, Sands is your designated school.

And of course Walnut Hills HS has an "excellent" rating.  I don't think any of the other grade schools do though.  I kinda wonder if the montessori method is not the best for scoring high on the tests.