A long-struggling Cincinnati charter school is selling its buildings in a deal that will keep the doors open until the end of this school year but leave some of its at-need students without somewhere to attend this fall.
Dohn Community High School serves mostly Black students who have behavioral problems who were expelled from other public schools or who are otherwise on their last chance to get a high school diploma. Its board agreed during an emergency meeting March 7 to sell its two buildings to Performance Academies, a Columbus-based charter school with a location in Mount Healthy, according Dohn’s lawyer, Adam Brown.
Performance Academies only offers schooling for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, meaning Dohn’s 1,600 students will need to find somewhere else to enroll before this fall.
The sale is a shift from a previous announcement to parents and staff, who were told in February the East McMillan Street building would be sold to Oakmont Academies, which operates several drop-out recovery high schools across Ohio, including one in Hamilton.
Performance Academies will buy Dohn’s main campus building off East McMillan Street for $1.07 million and its fitness center building off Reading Road for $730,000, Brown said.
A portion of the funds from the sale will be given to Dohn in advance so it can continue operating through the end of the school year, Brown said. The money will cover payroll for staff as well as other expenses ahead of the closure.
“We are currently working with Performance Academies to explore potential opportunities for both our students and staff, but at this time, we do not have any additional information to share,” Dohn CEO Bill Geraghty told The Enquirer.
More: ‘No other school in the city wants them.’ Cincinnati school for at-risk students to close
Geraghty said Dohn is organizing an open house event with other local schools, offering students and their families an opportunity to discuss options for next year.
Dohn’s other locations off West North Bend Road, Gilbert Avenue and West Fourth Street in Downtown are leased by the school and not a part of the sale, but will close as the rest of the school’s operations wind down at the end of June.
Dohn started this school year in turmoil, will close at year’s end
The sale comes as Dohn has faced several problems in recent months, including an ongoing Ohio auditor’s office investigation, a fired superintendent and more than $2 million in debt.
Charter schools like Dohn are tuition-free and publicly funded but run separately from traditional school districts and are often managed by private management companies or nonprofits. In Dohn’s case, the Buckeye Community Hope Foundation has sponsored the school and began to ask questions last fall after reviewing its comprehensive education plan, which the foundation said was submitted late and lacked substance.
Dohn students head home after dismissal Feb. 25.
The foundation, concerned about the outstanding debt and delayed payments, put the school on hold in September until classes officially started in mid-October. There were two rounds of layoffs in the fall, and then the school closed two of its campuses with little warning around Thanksgiving break. About 100 students were affected and rerouted to other Dohn buildings across town.
Still, Dohn serves a community of students without many options. In an email to a foundation leader The Enquirer obtained through a public records request, Geraghty was clear about the implications of closing even for a few weeks.
“For many students, Dohn is not just a school; it’s a sanctuary that provides essential resources, emotional support, and a safe environment where they can thrive,” Geraghty wrote at the time. “For many of these students, Dohn is the only chance they have to finish their education – because no other school in the city wants them.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio charter school for at-risk students selling its buildings
Read the full article here
