Staying with the story
The Middletown Journal was the first local media outlet to bring you news about the future of Life Skills Center of Middletown. Our reporters will continue to deliver new details about this story.
The former Life Skills Center of Middletown will have a new name, location and focus when the 2013-14 school year begins in mid-August.
The charter school has been renamed Marshall High School and will occupy the former ALDI grocery store building at Roosevelt Boulevard and Marshall Road. Rod Hale, president of the school’s six-member board of education, said Tuesday that a contract and a lease deal have been reached with the building’s landlord, though a few details still need to be finalized.
Renovation of the former ALDI should be completed by the tentative start date for classes of Aug. 12, school officials said. Hale has said that having a standalone building was important “so it feels like a high school.” The former Life Skills Center of Middletown was located in a strip mall at 631 S. Breiel Boulevard.
The charter school’s board recently voted not to renew its contract with White Hat Management, one of the state’s largest for-profit charter school operators, with 31 schools in Ohio, when it expires June 30. The board, which operates drop-out recovery schools in Middletown and Springfield, has chosen Newpoint Education Partners of Akron to run the alternative high schools.
Marshall High School will also have a familiar face leading its students and staff. Chuck Hall, who served as principal at Life Skills for nine years, was hired May 1 as the school’s administrator.
Hall was fired by White Hat on April 22 after informing the company of his intentions to apply for a job with Newpoint. Hall said he was excited about the new opportunity at Marshall High School and sees his hiring as “validation that I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“One minute you are feeling bad about your situation and the next minute you are being uplifted again,” Hall said. “What’s come out of this for me is a renewed passion and a new drive to make a difference in young people’s lives and in the life of this community.”
With Marshall High School, officials want to shed the reputation that Life Skills had of the charter school being only for “the bad kids,” Hall said. The new message to the community will be that the school is for any student who wants to get their high school diploma and “benefit from a nontraditional setting,” he said.
Hall said the school is also looking to expand its program offerings to include the arts, sports, workforce development and community service.
“Our students are going to be reaching out the community and giving back, helping the needy and the elderly,” Hall said. “Our new push is to really ingratiate our kids in the community. We are going to take it to a whole different level in this new school. It’s going to be a new feel and a new environment.”
But Marshall High School could be facing some competition for the 225 students it currently serves. White Hat officials have said they intend to open a charter school called Life Skills High School at the current site on Breiel Boulevard next school year.
Hale has said previously that Marshall High School would need about 150 students enrolled to “break even.” The board receives about $2 million annually from the state to run its charter schools in Middletown and Springfield.
Hall said he has spent much of his time since being hired spreading the word about Marshall. He said some people in the community are still not clear on what is happening in the wake of the shakeup with White Hat.
“What we don’t know, is the effect of that,” Hall said. “But we’re not worried about (competition). We just have to do the best we can with where we are at and serve the community. I really think (Marshall) is going to take off.”
For more information about Marshall High School or to enroll, call 513-318-7078.
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