When I first became involved with the School for Creative and Performing Arts building planning team in 2001, the plan was that the building would face on to Central Parkway toward WCET and would be next to Music Hall.  There was not a great deal of discussion regarding how the new building might influence the OTR community, just that the new building would reflect the architecture of the surrounding area.

I was not involved with the project for four years until December 2009 when I was chosen to be principal, but soon learned that the new building was being looked at as a "gateway" to the new Over the Rhine neighborhood.  While I understood what that meant, I had no realization of the magnitude to which the new school location and building were being counted on to help renovate and rejuvenate the community.

In past weeks I have come to have a better understanding of the impact people are hoping the school and building will make for everyone.  I have had the opportunity to attend meet and greets at various locations, most recently at the Emmanuel Community Center which hosted a reception to welcome me as the principal of SCPA to the community.  While the event was an opportunity for me to explain my vision for the school in its new location, it was the question and answer period following my presentation that allowed me to fully appreciate the faith individuals and community groups are putting in the school.

Questions ranged from how the school plans to interact with the community at large; to how the building will operate in general; to does the school have plans to bring community children who are not SCPA students into the building for after school kinds of programs or possibly as students in the future.

The questions were all very legitimate, and ideas expressed were wonderful.  What I left the meeting with was a fuller understanding of what the community and organizations within the larger community expects of SCPA. 

It is early in the process, and I did not have answers to all of the questions asked, but the one thing I can say is that SCPA wants to be a good neighbor, we want to interact in positive, productive, and beneficial ways to and with the community, and we want to help make the Over the Rhine community a better place for everyone.

Last December, I was informed that I had been chosen to be the principal at the School for Creative and Performing Arts beginning June 1, 2010.  I want to thank those who made the decision for their confidence in me.  I also want to acknowledge that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity with great challenges ahead.

Any school administrator will tell you that opening a new school is a tremendous project in and of itself.  Administrators will also tell you that merging two schools into one is a major challenge by itself. Doing both at the same time is an undertaking of enormous proportions.

The School for Creative and Performing Arts and Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment are both respected institutions within the Cincinnati Public Schools system, however, they are both schools that have operated independently of one another.  Each school has had its own culture, its own set of processes and procedures, and its own philosophies which have been alive and well in each school. The challenge is to bring both schools together in the common mission of doing what is best for students.

To begin this process we have had staff members from each school working on a variety of committees to begin to build relationships that will continue on as we move toward the opening of school in August. 

Communication has also been identified as a focal point of my efforts as we move toward August.  Throughout the budget development process in January and February when I worked with both staffs, to the identification of classroom spaces for all staff, and continuing currently as we plan for the opening of school, I have made it a point to communicate accurate and up to date information as often as possible so that all stakeholders know what is happening and feel that they are part of the merging process.

What will help the merging of the schools is that I was the principal at Schiel for five years.  The time I spent at Schiel, as well as the time spent at SCPA since December meeting staff, working with the Instructional Leadership Team and some committee members, has given me insight into the two schools.  With that insight I am confident that we will successfully merge the two schools and be ready when students arrive for the first day in August.

There is an old saying that the best thing about teaching is June, July, and August, also known as summer vacation.  Although this is no longer true, and most teachers take courses during the summer or work on preparing for the next school year, there is still a belief that teachers have the summer off each year.

Anyone who still subscribes to the notion that teachers do not work during the summer should stop by the Erich Kunzel Center for Arts and Education at 108 West Central Parkway, between Race and Elm, the new home of the School for Creative and Performing Arts. What you will find is a building full of teachers at all grade levels K-12 who are moving into the new facility and are hard at work on a daily basis unpacking boxes, moving equipment and furniture, and setting up their classrooms in preparation for the first day that all students will come to school, August 18, 2010.

This is not easy work.  Teachers will readily admit that they keep everything including every book, chart, worksheet, pencil, and anything else that they have bought over the years. To get a teacher to throw something away is as challenging an endeavor as trying to get them to stop buying materials in the first place. 

As the school year ended in May, teachers were charged with packing up their classrooms, including materials they have had in those rooms for as many as 20 or 25 years, into hundreds of cardboard boxes. Those boxes were then moved to their rooms in the new facility and the process of unpacking began.  Because the new classroom is not the old classroom, and doesn't necessarily have the same storage spaces, there has to be a process of finally determining what they want to keep and what they want to dispose of or take home to store in their basement.

A visit to SCPA these days will show clearly that the teachers at the school did not go into the education profession for June, July, and August. They went into education because they care about kids. They do whatever it takes to meet the needs of their students, and they do it on their personal time.