MAHONING COUNTY City has big plans for small schools

Educators are counting on students' enthusiasm to help the program grow.
By NORMAN LEIGH
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- City school district officials are hoping that big dividends will result from a plan that will dramatically alter each of its three high schools by creating small schools within them.
The aim behind the "Small Schools Initiative" is to foster learning by offering a more rigorous curriculum and by educators taking an interest in their students that extends beyond grades alone, school officials said.
A $2 million training grant from the Cincinnati-based KnowledgeWorks Foundation is aiding the district in the project.
Youngstown's three small schools are among 51 of their kind being established in large urban districts throughout Ohio this fall.
"This is to move us into a 21st-century model of teaching," schools Superintendent Wendy Webb said. "This is exciting. But it's going to be hard work" getting the program started and working out the bugs, she added.
Breaking it down
Each of the three high schools will have a small school and each small school will be organized on a different academic theme.
At Chaney, the small school will be in a wing of the building and will be called the "Center for Excellence in Academics, Athletics and the Arts."
The "Center for Interactive Exploration" is the name of the small school starting on the third floor of Woodrow Wilson High School.
The third floor at The Rayen School has been set aside for the "Class Academy."
In planning for the project, officials allowed for as many as 400 students to participate in each of the small schools.
But fewer students than that have signed up, at least for this year. Chaney will have 150, Wilson 165 and Rayen 250.
School officials aren't disappointed in the numbers, however.
Lots of interest
"The interest has been phenomenal," Webb said. She suspects many students and parents are waiting to see how the program works before taking part.
The ones signing up for the inaugural year "are the ones who are motivated. The pioneers," she said.
She added that she's counting on students' enthusiasm to boost the small schools' popularity.
"Kids will be the best salesperson for this thing," Webb said.
Youngsters who chose the small schools didn't have to meet any certain academic standards. All they needed was a desire to try a new way of learning.
The small schools will seek to provide that by challenging them in the classroom and encouraging them outside of it.
Each small-schools teacher will be assigned a group of students and are encouraged to take special interest in them.
That means talking to them about their homework assignments, helping them with their studies, encouraging them about college or career plans and even watching and listening for signs of problems at home.
"We're making an effort to make things better for the students," said John Tullio, administrative assistant to the superintendent.
No added costs
Officials insist there's no additional cost to the district to undertake the program, which is using teachers and administrators already in the system. The physical creation of the small schools didn't require any remodeling.
This fall, four teachers will be assigned full time to each of the three small schools. Each of the small schools also will have about five teachers assigned to them as shared staff, meaning they'll also work in the traditional classrooms.
Next school year, the small-schools initiative will grow with each of the small-schools themes being offered in each high school, bringing the total of small schools to nine.
Even then, the cost will be a wash because the district will continue using personnel already on staff.
Webb envisions the small schools initiative producing sizable results for the struggling district.
"We're not working on Band-Aid fixes anymore," she said. School officials want lasting, significant change.