New Wilson Middle in Youngstown to be gender-specific school

By Harold Gwin

Declining enrollments and cutting costs were cited as reasons for the move.

YOUNGSTOWN — The new Wilson Middle School will become the city school district’s gender school when it opens in the fall of 2009.

The school, part of a $190 million school rebuilding program, was originally destined to be a traditional middle school building housing sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade boys and girls in combined classrooms.

That plan has changed, and the school district now intends to move its Alpha: School of Excellence for Boys and Athena: School of Excellence for Girls into Wilson when it opens.

The two schools now occupy their own buildings with about 200 seventh- and eighth-graders in each, Alpha in the old Princeton building on Hillman Street and Athena in the old Hillman building on Myrtle Avenue.

They will be in the same building, but separated, with the boys occupying the north end of the structure and the girls in the south end, when the schools move to the new Wilson facility.

Dr. Wendy Webb said declining pupil enrollment in the city schools and the need to close some old buildings as a cost-saving measure were factors in making Wilson a gender school.

The pupils will get a prelude to being in the same building, but still being separated by gender, this fall, she said.

Athena will vacate the Hillman building in a spending reduction move and relocate on the third floor of the Princeton building where Alpha is located.

That area has been upgraded, and the girls will have their own entrances and busing arrangements, separate from the boys on the lower levels, Webb said.

There are no plans and no funds to raze either Hillman or Princeton once they are empty, said Tony DeNiro, assistant superintendent for school business affairs.

The structures most likely will be used as storage facilities, he said.

Webb has said the district can realize substantial utility savings by placing the gender schools in a single building. Administrative costs also can be cut, she said, noting that each school now has two principals but will have only one each in a single building.

The school district is expected to put the Wilson project out for bids within the next few weeks. Engineering estimates put the cost of the new building in the $12 million range. The project architect, BSHMArchitects Inc., detailed the interior layout for the school board last week.

DeNiro said the building may not be ready for occupancy on the opening day of classes but will definitely open sometime in fall 2009.

Webb launched the gender school concept in fall 2005.

There is a lot of research that says boys and girls learn differently, and sometimes lesson plans need to be geared to the way they learn, she said at the time.

“It’s a pilot program. I just simply believe we needed to do some really intense intervention,” she said.

Some pupils were assigned to the schools, but parents could request that their children be sent there.

There is a focus on academics but also concerted efforts to build physical fitness and social skills.

“It’s been a good choice for us,” Webb said recently, adding that it also gives parents a choice.

She said she would ultimately like to create a gender high school of choice, but added there’s no money on the horizon to implement such a concept.

Both gender schools were rated in academic emergency on the state local report card in 2006 and 2007. Ratings for this year won’t be out until August.

gwin@vindy.com