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Restructuring plan for city schools keeps main offices at Rayen
By Denise Dick
youngstowN
The city schools revitalization plan means that the William Rayen portion of the school administration building will remain as offices.
In July, the school board voted to renovate that portion of the building to house University Project Learning Center, a school for students with behavioral problems.
The estimated cost of the renovation was $568,725.
“We’re going to spend that money at Mary Haddow,” said Lock P. Beachum Sr., school board president.
Superintendent Connie Hathorn said the work didn’t get started at the Rayen building because when he was hired, he asked that it be delayed until he had time to study the district.
Hathorn released a plan this week that calls for school restructuring. It includes consolidating the district’s three alternative programs — UPLC, Twilight and Redirection — into one program and housing it at the now-closed Mary Haddow Elementary School building on Oak Street Extension on the East Side.
UPLC is in the former Hayes Middle School. Redirection, a partnership with Mahoning County Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center for expelled and drop-out recovery students, is on Hudson Avenue.
Twilight, at Choffin Career and Technical Center, is a program for 18- to 20-year-olds who have not earned many credits toward graduation.
Beachum said he wanted the new superintendent to have the opportunity to decide on the alternative-program location before the district spent money to renovate the administration building, he said.
Mary Haddow, which closed a few years ago, doesn’t need much work.
“We’re going to spend that money putting air conditioning in there so it will be air conditioned like the rest of the schools,” Beachum said.
The building will also likely be painted. “It’s in a good location,” the school board president said. “It’s very accessible.”