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Architects instructed that older, younger students can't mix
By John Higgins and Katie Byard
Beacon Journal
Published on Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
The Akron school board should see the first plans for a new building combining Buchtel High School and Perkins Middle School in May.
Board members approved the concept last summer to avoid closing Buchtel, on Copley Road, because of declining enrollment, but they left the plans open to change, depending on public response.
Community meetings late last year confirmed two things: Parents didn't want the West Akron neighborhood to lose its high school, but they also wanted to ensure that seventh- and eighth-graders would be separated as much as possible from older students.
''People seem to be very aware of the economic situation and the enrollment situation,'' said Jacqueline A. Silas-Butler, executive director of Project GRAD Akron, a nonprofit educational reform organization focused on the Buchtel cluster. ''People have voiced concerns about the intermingling of the older and younger students.''
The same issue arose in the redesign of East High School, which will be renovated to accommodate seventh- and eighth-graders from Goodyear Middle School. Goodyear is to close when the new school opens in 2010.
After Perkins is closed, sixth-graders will attend elementary schools in the Buchtel Cluster.
That's the same plan for the east side: sixth-graders at Goodyear Middle School will be divided among the elementary schools in the East cluster.
The initial design for a combined East High School didn't pass muster with parents, who wanted better separation of the middle school students from the upperclassmen.
Revised designs for the additions to the high school building address those concerns. Officials hope the experience tackling the separation problem at East High will carry over when architects design the new Buchtel building.
''In some ways, it helps being a brand-new building, because they have more flexibility with the design to make that separation more distinct,'' said Paul Flesher, the district's director of facility planning.
Akron is about halfway through an $800 million construction project that will shut down, renovate or replace every school in the district.
The state is paying for 59 percent of the project, with the rest coming from a city income tax hike approved by voters. The schools will double as community centers after classes let out.
The Ohio State Facilities Commission, which oversees the project, evaluates enrollment trends every year and makes adjustments to the master plan for the project accordingly.
The compromise for East High School was reached in 2005 to prevent East from shutting down. The high school originally was on a list of nine buildings slated to close because of a state mandate that Akron cut its project in light of declining enrollment.
Buchtel faced a similar dilemma.
Middle and high schools in the Kenmore and North clusters also could be combined if enrollment continue to fall, but those design ideas are still in the study stage, Flesher said.
Meanwhile, East High students are currently housed in the former Central-Hower High School downtown while their new school is under construction. They're expected to move back in 2010.
When they move out, Buchtel students will move into Central-Hower. Their new school is expected to open in 2012.
Flesher said the estimated cost for the new Buchtel, including design and fixtures, is $47.8 million.
In May, the board should see initial plans, which basically establish how much classroom space is needed for each academic program.
Those plans are the first of four sets of increasingly detailed design documents that school, city and state officials must approve before the project is bid out to contractors.
Silas-Butler said the community meetings about combining Buchtel and Perkins are ongoing and have been productive.
''It may not be exactly how you would want it to be, but everyone realizes the need to keep the school,'' she said. ''People definitely don't want the school closed.''
John Higgins can be reached at 330-996-3792, 800-777-7232 or jhiggins@thebeaconjournal.com.
The Akron school board should see the first plans for a new building combining Buchtel High School and Perkins Middle School in May.
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