December 7, 2015

Alexander Kuhns
Ericka Copeland-Dansby
Melanie Bates
Eve Bolton
Elisa Hoffman
Daniel Minera
A. Chris Nelms
Mary Ronan
Dear Respected Board Members and Superintendent,
It has come to our attention, as the Fairview-Clifton German Language School
PTO, also known as GEBAS, that there is a probable plan to expand the 2016-17
Kindergarten enrollment and create two additional classrooms. We understand the
strategic goals of the CPS board and favor the overall vision for quality and equitable
learning environments for our communitys student population. We feel that
expanding our model programs at Fairview will do a disservice to incoming and
existing students and compromise the strategic goals which the district wishes to
accomplish.
Fairview is an acclaimed school and if you speak to the families with a
student enrolled, you would get nothing but praise for the programs and staff that
make our children feel safe and engaged in the academic environment. Parents are
involved in this success by volunteering in the classrooms, on field trips, and serving
on organizational committees. Hence, it has become a popular choice during the
magnet enrollment application process. This popularity has brought Fairview to
maximum capacity and we fear that short-term compliance with willing future
parents will jeopardize the long-term quality of our excellent instructional team and
programs.
We know that our staff is working well beyond the capacity of the school
structure. This is the main concern that comes with this idea of expansion. The new
school building was built for around 600 students, and currently it operates with
over 700 students. We know that every space is used for instructional space
including conference rooms, the stage and staff lounges. Our staff makes it work, but
it is not without current compromise, and we are concerned with what the future
holds if this current model were extended. We have many questions that revolve
around space in the current building and the proposed use of space at the CCAC. If
there were an expansion we fear the quality of education at Fairview and the safety
of our students will be compromised in various ways:

Instructional time and programming for German and Specials would be

decreased to accommodate larger student loads and transition time between

buildings. We chose this school for the language education, and it is a priority
for all of our families.
The health of our students would be at risk. We wouldnt be able to
accommodate the increasing health needs of our students with one school
health aid serving two buildings.
Parking, drop-off and pick-up, and bus service is a current issue at our school.
The division of the schools student population on either side of McAlpin Ave.
could put our students at a high risk. Security and city traffic patterns are just
some of the concerns we foresee with expanding school operations across
the street.

We know the German Language program at our school creates a unique culture
and community. Many of our students continue the language in secondary schools
and take part in our travel exchange program during one of their middle school
summers. This culture is established with the consistent attendance and core
student body that is committed to the programs through grades K-6. Knowing the
attrition rate is low at Fairview, we understand that increasing two classrooms for
the 2016-17 school year would mean increasing classrooms for each grade level in
subsequent years. If an expansion was decided this year we fear the engaging
environments and rigorous learning would be in jeopardy in various ways:

The increase in classroom numbers to the maximum capacity to fulfill

enrollment would not be fair to the staff nor to the students. We would like to
maintain quality seats for all students. Students are well cared for in their
small classroom environments. The equitable distribution of operations and
resources would be compromised for academic achievement at certain grade
levels if an expansion were to proceed.
Finding additional staff dedicated to the instructional programs offered at
our dual-language school would need to be considered. Currently, our
specials staff is working at a full caseload. One specials teacher for 750
students is outrageous! But we do love our specials teachers and they do
their best to offer quality instruction with the little funding they are
provided. Additional qualified German teachers would need to be recruited.

Time is the biggest issue that needs to be addressed if you would like to
implement a true and valued form of expansion. Community buy-in and support is
important to consider when making such an impactful decision. Yes, adding two
classrooms next year may address the need to appease families with Fairview as
their first choice in the lottery, but what is the long-term plan? There is an issue
when a great number of parents are looking for quality school programs within the
magnet school programs. Maybe the district and board should consider
restructuring existing schools with current modern and renovated facilities to
accommodate current student populations. Taking the model of Fairview and
attempting to replicate it at another fully equipped school site would show how
success could be shared by more than one school. The process and implementation

could be developed with full assistance of the Fairview administration, parent

organizations, staff, and community to ensure the program looks as much like the
one that supports ours. Executing a true replication would show that CPS has the
capability to increase quality education for all students. Having these conversations
is important and part of the process expected as electors to elected officials.
We all agree that Fairview is a wonderful school and is a model for excellent
academic programming and community engagement. We understand why there are
groups of campers and large number of families wanting to enroll at Fairview. We
also understand there are limitations to working with existing space and human
resources. As we move forward, we hope that our concerns are heard and
considered in this very important matter of providing a quality education to all
students and their families. It is important for all stakeholders to know if these
expansions are to come to fruition how they would be supported financially and
with additional staffing and resources. We would like to understand the long-term
plan. As a PTO we supplement and support many programs for our students and
staff because we are not a Title I school; if our population were to increase we would
need to understand what our future responsibilities hold.
If the district plans to follow through with this expansion initiative, please
consider listening to the larger CPS community and the Fairview community in an
intimate setting so that all stakeholders can have input in this decision making
process in its short and long-term forms. We understand these decisions have a
wider impact and all students in our Cincinnati community. All families need to have
quality education choices and quality seats for their children at all school sites.
Attached is a list of questions compiled from some members of our parent
community. Many were incorporated in this letter. We hope they can be considered
and answered.
Regards,
GEBAS
Fairview-Clifton German School PTO

Questions Concerning Probable Expansion of Fairview

1) What are the districts plans for expansion? Are they short-term or long-term?
2) How will they plan to support the additional students?
3) What plans are in place to make sure that there are adequate/quality specials
instruction for all students?
4) Has it occurred to the board that the size of the school might perhaps be a
contributing factor in its success? And that increasing that size could potentially
corrupt the quality of the program and the attention that is paid to each individual
child?
5) How is this shift from a consistent population to a potentially more transient one
be planned for, keeping in mind that our program is based on students entering in
kindergarten and staying through sixth grade?
5) With extra students, how will that impact an already packed capacity in German,
art, music and physical education? Not to mention Special education services such
as intervention specialists and OT, PT, speech therapy, school psychologist, etc. If
there is a plan to increase Kindergarten capacity by X% then will they increase the
capacity of all of these by that as well, or they are setting the whole school up to fail?
6) How can we simply take part in a conversation before this decision is made final
(which is very near - the topic is on the boards January agenda, at which time,
lottery assignments will already have been sent out and it will be too late to
reverse)?