Future of Hyde Park School to be discussed tonight

The future of the former Hyde Park Elementary School will be discussed tonight in a public meeting at the school at 7:30 PM.

This is the second public meeting being held to discuss the possibility of bringing back a neighborhood school for Hyde Park, which has received strong support from the Education Committee of the Hyde Park Neighborhood Council and a majority of the neighborhood's citizens.

Residents will also have the opportunity to help decide what kind of programs they would like to see in a new school.

Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) closed Hyde Park Elementary School in 2005 after briefly considering renovation.

Since then, Kilgour Elementary has been using the space during the renovation of their Mount Lookout school.

Many Hyde Park students were redistricted into Kilgour after their school's closing.

Kilgour, which was named as a Blue Ribbon School in both 1992 and 2002, has been identified as a model for the kind of school that the Hyde Park community would like to have.

Mary Ronan, Director of Schools for CPS, will speak at the meeting about what a school must do to earn Blue Ribbon status.

Kilgour will be moving to their renovated school on Herschel Avenue during the summer of 2008.

If a new school isn't established, the school building could be vacant for the first time since 1901.

The Hyde Park School is at Edwards Road and Observatory Avenue.