City schools start year with new junior high, Head Start

8/8/2014

As summer break winds down, Toledo Public Schools Superintendent Romules Durant on Thursday discussed changes for the upcoming school year including a new junior high and Head Start.

The announcements were made at the Jones Leadership Academy, which will open for the first time this school year.

The school’s principal, Ward Barnett, said he hopes it will allow students to “achieve the confidence to create a better world.”

The school’s building was designed with separate wings to allow boys and girls to be taught separately.

“The main goal was to develop a continuation for gender-based education because there was never a secondary option” beyond the district’s single-gender elementary schools, Mr. Durant said. The leadership academy will be open to students in grades seven through nine, and eventually through grade 12.

Mr. Durant also discussed the new TPS-organized Head Start.

“We have been blessed as a community to receive Early Head Start and Head Start,” he said. “It will allow children to get acclimated to a school environment.”

Preschoolers, kindergartners, and Head Start students start class Sept. 2. Elementary students will begin school with a half day Aug. 26, following the elementary school open houses Aug. 25.

High school freshmen will begin Aug. 26. Other high school students will begin Aug. 27.

Mr. Durant said, “We understand that freshman year is the most essential.”

He said having freshmen start a day early will give them more time for orientation and integration.

Mr. Durant also added that the football stadiums for Scott and Woodward high schools will be ready for the fall season.

Cecelia Adams, school board president, said, “We are ready to embark on a school year like none other ever seen before.”