Mound Street charter school to become part of Dayton district

SCHOOLS: Valley View levy passes, Bellbrook, Beavercreek fail

Mound Street serves students in grades 9-12 in a dropout prevention and recovery model, with a current enrollment of about 155 students. The school uses the same Apex Learning curriculum that DPS uses to help some of its students with credit recovery when they fall behind.

Lolli said next year, Mound Street will continue to offer a dropout prevention structure, but will operate as a regular DPS school, not a charter school. She said the current building at 354 Mound St. will eventually have to be sold, but the plan is for them to operate out of that building next year.

Under Ohio’s separate standards for dropout prevention schools, Mound Street got an overall “does not meet standards” rating on its most recent state report card. It was dinged for poor test passage rates and student progress, while meeting standards on gap closing and graduation rate.

SCHOOLS: Gay Catholic school teacher ousted as policy debated

Until this school year, DPS had served as the sponsor for another dropout prevention school — the Dayton Business Technology High School on West First Street downtown. That school is now sponsored by the Ohio Department of Education’s Office of School Sponsorship.

Lolli said DPS eventually hopes to increase enrollment at Mound Street by identifying students who are at risk of dropping out of other DPS schools and checking whether the Mound Street model would be a better fit for them.

She said DPS will review ODE data suggesting the school might be overstaffed, but DPS will otherwise retain current Mound Street staff.

Mound Street was previously organized into three different schools — Military Academy, Health Careers Academy and IT Careers Academy — before consolidating into one. Lolli said DPS will not make major changes to the model right away.

RELATED: Are kids learning online? What’s next for schools?

“The structure that’s in place, from what I can tell on paper without observing, we likely will keep that,” Lolli said. “Then we’ll make some decisions after we see how Mound Street operates. I don’t think it’s prudent to go in and turn them upside down without doing analysis and careful thought on that.”

In its resolution Wednesday the board authorized Lolli to carry out any necessary administrative tasks related to “staffing, assets, and communications with current students,” in coordination with Mound Street and state officials.