HOW DO WE KNOW ABOUT THIS CONSOLIDATION PROPOSAL?
At the April board meeting, Board president Hausfeld and member Bibb made statements during that hinted at an effort to bring the discussion into the sunshine as part of a committee during Agenda item 16.0, board comments. As of the date of this writing September 21, no committee has been formed.
In June, a FOIA request unearthed an email from Board Member Jonas to then Superintendent Scot Prebles, admonishing him for supporting the PTO/PTA activities by several schools to build outdoor classrooms, where Jonas wrote on June 2, 2022, “how can you approve this plan when the board is discussing consolidation?” Community members have pointed out that Facilities Manager John Eckert, along with one other staff member in the FHSD administration have attended at least one meeting with employees of downtown-Cincinnati-based Elevar, a design firm that has worked with Cincinnati Public Schools and St. Bernard-Elmwood. According to their website, Former FHSD Board Member and real estate developer Rich Neumann is employed by Elevar as a consultant. According to these community members, the conversations with Elevar outline the intent–which has not been shared with the public– to sell Anderson High School and move its 1200 students to a single-high school at the site of Turpin High School and Mercer Elementary. We have learned from a September 23, 2022 Cincinnati.com interview with board member Leslie Rasmussen that there is even more to this plan than we uncovered. Here are all the points of Elevar's "Project Intrepid" plan that have been confirmed by Dr. Rasmussen:
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RICH NEUMANN, SECRECY, AND THE ART OF THE RUSHED DEALWe reviewed hundreds of news articles and dozens of public records about his prior deals. We discovered a few themes with notable similarities to “Project Intrepid.”
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SURVEY SAYS … CONSOLIDATION DOESN’T HAVE THE FULL SUPPORT OF THE COMMUNITYIn early October, Advocates FHSD ran a short survey to better understand our audience and sentiments towards the potential consolidation and redistricting of the schools, among other issues.
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