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NEW MIAMI LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT

New Miami district on the comeback trail

STEM funds take New Miami schools to the next level

New Miami high school chemistry student Destiny Hubbard learns to work some of the new technology provided by the district's STEM grants.

Staff photo by Richard O Jones New Miami high school chemistry student Destiny Hubbard learns to work some of the new technology provided by the district's STEM grants.

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 10:32 PM Saturday, November 14, 2009

NEW MIAMI — With the implementation of an engineering-based curriculum across the district, New Miami Local Schools hope to become a regional magnet district, drawing students from nearby districts eager to take part in the “Learning By Design @ New Miami,” an initiative to implement the STEM — Science, Technology, Engineering, Math — program.

If that comes to fruition, and district officials have reasons to believe that it will, the district’s story is worthy of a “Rocky”-style Hollywood movie, of an underdog down for the count making an amazing recovery and comeback.

Just 10 school years ago, New Miami was given the lowest possible rating, “Academic Emergency,” on the state’s report card.

To many, that was no great surprise. New Miami is one of the poorest districts in the state with some 75 percent of its students on free or reduced lunches, according to Dianna Muennich, director of curriculum and instruction. Some 22 percent of the students could not read at their grade level, and throughout much of the 1990s, the district’s graduation rates were as low as 65 percent, according to the state report cards.

For most of its students, going to college or any post-secondary education wasn’t even on the radar.

“We knew we had to get busy because we were at the bottom of the totem pole,” said longtime school board member Gary E. Fox.

What made the difference, Fox believes, is that the effort to pass a $3 million bond issue in a population of about 3,000 turned the tide and generated a new spirit of community and cooperation, partly because it brought the entire district of 800 students into one building.

“Kids didn’t come to school and didn’t participate in anything,” he said. “But the new school seemed to get everybody to knuckle down and get busy because we had something new.

“Kids started coming to school and participating in after-school programs so much that we had to start feeding them,” he said.

The state report card started showing immediate improvement, and for the 2004-05 school year, the rating rose two steps to “Effective.”

The graduation rate is now around 94 percent, partly as the result of a Credit Recovery Program that assists students in keeping track of what they need to graduate, while at the same time raising the bar to require more math and science courses, Muennich said.

A $15,000 grant from the Hamilton Community Foundation has provided extra personnel to mentor students on their post-secondary options.

“Five years ago, fewer than 10 percent continued their education after high school,” Muennich said. “Now we’re up to 30-40 percent of our students planning to go to college.”

“We want every kid to leave here with a post-secondary enrollment plan,” said guidance counselor Kristin Yancey.

Muennich and Yancey believe that it is the district’s recovery under such adverse circumstances that made it a likely recipient of the STEM grants, which pumped $700,000 in technology into the building, taking New Miami Local Schools to the next step in becoming a unique presence in the region.

The next level

It was one year ago last week that administrators at the New Miami Local Schools found out about the availability of STEM money.

The STEM program, funded largely by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, provided nearly $6 million for fiscal year 2009 to Ohio schools to “significantly strengthen Ohio’s competitiveness in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine,” according to a news release from the Ohio Board of Regents, which administers the funds.

The district was eager to apply for some of these funds, said Dianna Muennich, director of curriculum and instruction, but they only had four weeks before the grant application deadline.

“It was short notice, so we got the teachers together, told them what was going on and what it would mean,” she said.

Muennich said that the commitment from the staff was not immediate because the implications were profound: “We’d have to change our philosophy about how to teach children,” she said.

That is, the curriculum would have to shift from a traditional, book-centered approach to education to a hands-on, technology-based approach with an emphasis in science and math, those subjects and skills that are more highly sought after in the contemporary job market.

It also meant shifting the focus from simply getting students to graduate from high school, but now to get them ready for education after high school.

New Miami Local Schools ended up with two STEM grants, making them one of only two districts in the state that could offer STEM programming to every student, not just selected grade levels.

“Once we got into it, the teachers got behind it, and they all went for technical training, even though it wasn’t required,” Muennich said, noting that New Miami is the lowest-paying district in Butler County. “They are the hardest working group of teachers I’ve ever seen. They never give up. They teach every day and expect the kids to do the work.”

The grants — $479,913 for grades six through 12 and $211,131 for kindergarten through fifth grade — have resulted in a significant shift in the way classrooms are conducted and by all accounts have stimulated student interest in learning in unimaginable ways.

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Jul,I think that with tech funds, students received laptops, so they may use software instead of textbooks. Same info, just not in book form. I heard they haven't used textbooks much at all the past five years or so anyway. I am sure you can send that question to the director of curriculum. Give NM a chance. They are on the cutting edge of how all schools will operate in the next decade. Using computers in the classroom will prepare them for the world of work much more so than using a textbook.

alumna
8:39 AM, 11/16/2009

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While it is nice to hear the good, where is the money to buy school books so that each student has there own.

Jul
10:17 PM, 11/15/2009

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New Miami is a great place! Granted, the school has had good and bad times. Many former Vikings hold prominent positions in Butler County and abroad. We are nurses, teachers, lawyers, police officers, military officers, parole officers, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists, administrators, etc. The Journal used to cover only the failures of the community. Thank you Mr. Jones for this article. You would be hard pressed to find another community as financially poor but rich in character and spirit.

alumna
8:00 PM, 11/15/2009

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Thanks Richard O. Jones for this article and especially the articles on the three people that ran for our school board.

viking72
10:35 AM, 11/15/2009

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this is so awesome.new miami is a great small town i am glad to hear they are up grading to help there staff and students.i wish them all the luck.go go go.

jo
10:10 AM, 11/15/2009

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