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Eric Messer, principal of Western Row Elementary looks at the finger of Kaya Stewart. Messer also served as Mason Heights Elementary’s principal. / The Enquirer/Cara Owsley

Michael D. Clark reports:

More than 1,600 students here will be part of a historic change in August after Mason school officials decided Tuesday evening to merge two schools.

The Mason school board voted unanimously to shut down Mason Heights Elementary for next school year, merging its 800 students into Western Row Elementary and the Mason Early Childhood Center.

It’s the first merger of Mason schools since the mid-20th century.

While public input was voluminous in recent weeks – more than 1,400 comments via an online survey – the major change to the Warren County district was largely decided without public contention to the idea.

Both the 45-year-old Mason Heights building and the 52-year-old Western Row school, which currently house the 11,000-student district’s second and third grades, were originally considered for closing when officials first publicly raised the possibility last month.

But Western Row’s more central location within the 25-square-mile district, combined with a slightly larger campus, easier cafeteria and playground access and a safer traffic and parking flow configuration were among the favorable factors, said Mason Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline.

Enrollment in Mason has leveled off in recent years.

“This matches our enrollment to our building capacity. And allows us to channel our resources to our students and not to another building,” said Kist-Kline. “And it does not change class size at all.”

Board member Marianne Culbertson said “we feel the decision is best for kids.”

About 490 Mason Heights second-graders will move to Mason Early Childhood Center, which opened in 2006 and now holds pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first grade. Those grades will remain there.

Mason Heights, which is located at 200 Northcrest Drive in the northern part of the district, earned a state ranking of “Excellent” – the second highest rating – for the 2010-11 school year, as did Western Row – at 755 Western Row Road in the eastern section of the school system. The Mason Early Childhood Center earned the state’s top rating of “Excellent With Distinction” as did the entire district that year.

Both schools currently enroll about 800 students and both are below capacity.

While Mason Heights also has an annex building on its campus, it is separated by a parking lot access road, which officials saw as a possible hazard for student pedestrians.

Starting with this school year, the two schools began sharing a single principal, also a first in Mason school history.

The board took no action on staffing changes for next school year due to the merger, but is likely to consider those in March or April.

Mason Heights may be sold, officials said.

Mason, like other some other suburban districts, has cut millions of dollars from its budget in recent years, including dozens of teachers as part of last year’s personnel reductions.

Officials anticipate the merger will save about $1 million annually in operating and facility costs beginning next school year.

Mason’s yearly operating budget is $100 million.

Western Row needs about $1.4 million in restoration and renovations, said officials, but that work will be done during a five-year period.

“This decision has been data driven to maximize student learning,” said Kist-Kline.

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: board of education, closing, consolidate, eric messer, mason heights, mason school board, mason schools, principal, spending, students, taxes, western row

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Michael D. Clark reports:

School officials here met late into the evening Monday discussing and debating details on a merger of two schools.

The Mason Board of Education went into executive session for more than three hours as the board considered layoffs from combining Western Row and Mason Heights elementaries next school year. The board took no action but announced late Monday it will vote on the proposed merger at its regular public meeting on Feb. 14.

“The plan has shifted and changed a bit,” said Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline, who presented the idea to the board last month. “There is an educational impact here, a community impact and a financial impact. This is an important decision, and we want to thoughtfully weigh it.”

About 1,600 students and their families at the two schools could be impacted by the proposed merger, which would leave one of the schools closed and could move one or more elementary grades to the Mason Early Childhood Center.

Kist-Kline told the board that an online survey of parents at the school was initiated last month when the merger idea was unveiled. So far it has garnered more than 1,400 responses to the open-ended questions soliciting opinions about a merger.

Both schools have excess capacity. Combining them would save the Warren County district an estimated $600,000 annually from its $100 million operating budget.

Both buildings also are in need of repairs. The older Western Row needs an estimated $2.5 million work, and Mason Heights needs about $1.4 million.

The two schools, which house the district’s second and third grades, already share a single principal.

Among the factors the board is pondering are whether there would be advantages to keeping Western Row open because it is more centrally located in the 25-square-mile district and whether a road separating the annex building on Mason Heights’ campus would allow for safe student pedestrian traffic.

Western Row, built in 1962, is slightly older. Mason Heights opened in 1967. Both have had additional wings added in the subsequent decades.

School board President Kevin Wise said “there are a lot of variables.”

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools |

Tags: Tags: board of education, consolidate, eric messer, mason heights, mason school board, mason schools, principal, spending, students, taxes, western row

Eric Messer, principal of Western Row Elementary looks at the finger of Kaya Stewart. Messer is also Mason Heights Elementary’s principal. / The Enquirer/Cara Owsley

Michael Clark reports:

For the first time since the mid-20th century, a Mason school may be consolidated into another.

Mason Schools officials unveiled a plan during Tuesday evening’s school board meeting that could close either Mason Heights or Western Row Elementary at the end of this school year to combine it into one school building.

If the school board votes next month to approve it, the cost-savings plan would impact more than 1,600 students and their families, said school officials.

“This would consolidate our schools from six to five. We do have the space available and it would keep us from investing in older buildings,” Mason Superintendent Gail Kist-Kline told the board.

“This is a big decision and there are challenges that go with that – and certainly disruptions for families. We need to consider the community impact,” said Kist-Kline.

Both schools have excess capacity to accommodate additional students from the consolidation, she said.

Combining the two schools would save Mason Schools an estimated $600,000 annually from its $100 million operating budget.

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Both buildings, however, are in need of repairs with the older Western Row school needing an estimated $2.5 million and Mason Heights about $1.4 million.

The two schools – which house the district’s second and third grades – already share a single principal, which was a first in Mason’s long history. At the start of this school year, former Mason Heights Principal Eric Messer also took over supervision of Western Row.

Part of the proposal also includes moving one of the two grades to the newer and larger Mason Early Childhood Center at 4631 Hickory Woods Drive in the northwestern portion of the district.

District officials also announced that beginning today, they are asking school families and residents to register their reactions to the idea at the Mason Schools’ website at www.masonohioschools.com.

The board took no action but may vote on the plan at its next meeting on Feb. 14.

Mason Board of Education President Kevin Wise said “one thing that is critical is the importance of maintaining flexibility with our buildings.”

“Everything is on the table, (but) we also want to hear from our public,” said Wise.

Officials in the affluent Warren County school system had predicted years ago that its once rapid enrollment bursts of the last decade would peak at about 12,000 by now, but the nation’s economic recession and lagging housing market has lowered that estimate by about 1,000 students.

At times from 2000 to 2009, Mason had annual enrollment increases in excess of 600 new students.

In the past decade, Mason Schools have consistently been among the top 10 academic performers among Ohio’s 613 public school systems.

Mason Heights, which is located at 200 Northcrest Drive in the northern part of the district, earned a state ranking of “Excellent” – the second highest rating – for the 2010-11 school year, as did Western Row – at 755 Western Row Road in the eastern section of the school system. The Mason Early Childhood Center earned the state’s top rating of “Excellent With Distinction” as did the entire district that year.

The projected $600,000 in savings through consolidation is among the reasons Mason officials have said they will not ask residents for a new operating levy until 2013.

In recent years, the district has cut millions of dollars in personnel and programs in an effort to delay its returning to the ballot with a new tax hike. Voters in 2010 rejected a new operating levy, which was the first such ballot defeat for Mason Schools since 1970.

Posted in: Board of Education, Schools, Uncategorized |

Tags: Tags: board of education, consolidate, eric messer, mason heights, mason school board, mason schools, principal, spending, students, taxes, western row