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Decision close on Northside School

For months, Northside community leaders have tried convincing Cincinnati Public Schools to abandon plans to rebuild Chase School on its current location, a move they said would be a massive error in neighborhood planning.

They’ll soon know whether they succeed. Demolition has begun at the old building, and school district officials say they won’t put off further planning any longer than early June, after agreeing to a delay at the request of Mayor Mark Mallory.

“I’d probably give it a one-third chance of making it,” said Tim Jeckering, president of the Northside Community Council. “That is a higher number than I would have given in the past.”
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At issue is the configuration of a narrow block in the heart of Northside, which holds the city-owned McKie Recreation Center, its adjacent swimming pool, Chase Elementary School and its playground.

Northside officials envisioned rebuilding the entire campus, calling its original design “a tragic mistake” driven by land availability when CPS first built the school in 1975. As it stands today, the awkward placement of the school away from any street makes it a crime haven and disconnects school’s students from the day-to-day life of the neighborhood, neighbors said.

A neighborhood-created comprehensive plan calls for building the new school directly along Chase Avenue, where the recreation center stands today.

Ideally, neighbors say, the school and a new, improved rec center could share services under one roof, potentially saving both the city and the school district money.

However, current plans call for rebuilding Chase essentially on its current footprint. A more radical change can’t happen unless the City recreation commission is prepared to foot the cost of its own parts of a combined city-schools building.

City Recreation Director Norman Merrifield says there’s not money to improve McKie now, and such a combined building would need extensive planning and design.

The most likely solution may be found in a compromise, in which CPS would build a new Chase, but in such a way that it could potentially integrate with an improved rec center in the future.

“We’re very interested in making different arrangements, and we’re trying hard to listen to the community about the movement of Chase school toward a more prominent position toward the street,” said school board president Eve Bolton.

But whether or not a consensus emerges, CPS administrators intend to continue planning the new building in June. Further delays would add expense to the project, and could lengthen current Chase students’ stay in its temporary home in the old Kirby Road school, said district spokeswoman Janet Walsh.

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This place is sort of a cliche ugly 70's elementary school, but I wouldn't mind seeing it before it comes down. Has anyone been there?