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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Toni Carr, a Montessori Learning Center Teacher, and
her son
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Sustenance and existence are two words that weigh heavily on Ann Baumbach's mind. As education director for the Montessori Learning Center (MLC) in Mount Auburn, Baumbach, along with the MLC board of trustees and a corps of dedicated parents, faculty and staff, has been working around the clock to answer one question: Will the program survive?
The 29-year-old Montessori program is looking at some tough times because the building that's housed it for 12 years is in the process of being sold, causing the center to move during the school year, find a new home and work out a mountain of financial details as a result of losing major rent subsidies.
But MLC is taking it all in stride.
"As someone who's been a part of this program for so long, it's a wonderful thing to think about having our own building," Baumbach said. "We'll get through this."
MLC currently shares the Gamble Building, 244 Southern Ave., with the Mount Auburn Clinic. Each institution occupies a floor of the four-story building, while the other two floors have remained vacant for the past 12 years.
Across the street at 237 Southern Ave. is an apartment building that, for the time being, 24 people call home.
But come April 1, the Gamble Building will be vacated, and within a few months so will the apartments, both to make way for a state-chartered community school. They're being sold by the Elizabeth Gamble Deaconess Home Association (EGDHA), which sees them as "white elephants," says MLC's former business director, Catherine Tape.
In 1984, the Gamble Realty Corp., a subsidiary of EGDHA, bought the properties for prospective use by nearby Christ Hospital, which receives substantial financial support from the association. The hospital leased the apartments right away but waited for four years to lease the Gamble Building to the school and the clinic.
Now, after 12 years, EGDHA is selling the properties, leaving 24 residents to look for new homes, MLC to move in the middle of its school year and the clinic to move an entire facility in a week. School and clinic officials and apartment residents were notified of the sale and eviction on Jan. 28.
"We need more time," said Daniel Friedman, president of MLC's board of trustees. "Property is hard to find."
Friedman noted that the average cost of commercial space in Mount Auburn is $10 per square foot, three times what MLC currently pays for rent.
Gail Myers, vice president of corporate communications for the Health Alliance, of which Christ Hospital is a member, said the sale of the properties had no political motivation and was not related to recent Health Alliance cuts or any policy change from EGDHA.
Still, parents, teachers and board members of the Montessori Learning Center question whether it can survive its mid-year move to a temporary home while its long-term future is being so open-ended.
Time also crucial for new tenant
Carol Kerlakian needs more time, too. She is in the process of buying the buildings to open the Sabis International School of Cincinnati next fall.
The state granted Kerlakian, a molecular biologist, a charter in April 1999 to form Sabis, an international college prep program that originated in the Middle East. She wanted to open the school last year but couldn't find an appropriate building.
She found the Gamble Building in June 1999. It wasn't on the market, but Gamble Realty wanted to sell it and was selectively looking for buyers. Kerlakian said someone not associated with Christ Hospital, Gamble Realty or EGDHA contacted her about the building.
To get the school ready for an August 2000 opening, "tremendous" renovations must start in April, Kerlakian said. The clinic has to be redesigned, and the building needs extensive drywall work, carpeting, a sprinkler system, an elevator, a library and repairs to water damage.
Kerlakian suggested allowing the Montessori Learning Center to stay in the building during the renovations, but Christ Hospital officials recommended that it move, she said.
"I didn't want to cause problems," Kerlakian said. "I do not feel like we are evicting them, but I knew it would cause problems. It's always in the headlines. They're the good guys and we're the bad guys."
Moving the apartment tenants is not as pressing an issue, Kerlakian said. She bought that building for future use as a high school and gymnasium.
"All of the leases would be done by June, because they're staggered," she said. "But we can't close (the deal) until they're out."
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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"Closed" signs throughout a classroom in the Mount
Auburn Montessori Learning Center symbolize the
change to come.
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Myers said the final close rested on "certain contingencies that would not be appropriate to disclose."
Kerlakian touted what she feels are the benefits of her school's programs -- non-selective admissions, no tuition and a focus on math, science, English and foreign language -- and invited MLC students to enroll in her school.
"It's a great opportunity for the neighborhood," she said. "It's a college-prep curriculum, and it's competitive."
Friedman is not worried that the Sabis school will lure children from the center's program, he said.
"The Montessori system offers a unique philosophy of education, and Cincinnati is one of the centers of Montessori training in the country," Friedman said, noting Xavier University Montessori training and degree programs. "Parents choose the Montessori philosophy for good reasons."
He added that the board felt no hostility toward the new school. "Business is business," he said. "We'll rise from the flames stronger. ... These are some of the most talented and resourceful teachers in the city."
Model of diversity, hard work
That optimism rises from the support from MLC parents, past and present, Baumbach said. The board and administration have been directing parent energy to detailed tasks -- one parent has volunteered to be the moving coordinator, another is advising parents on child care while the center closes for a week to move, and others have volunteered their pick-up trucks to help move.
Parents are volunteering their checkbooks as well. Many are adding more to their children's monthly tuition, making separate financial donations, and alumni also have been making financial and volunteer donations.
The program is worth fighting for, Baumbach said, and parents, staff, board members and Health Alliance officials realize they must work together for the program to survive.
The shear diversity in the families is a major part of the program's draw, Baumback said. Out of 111 children at MLC, 49 are African-American, 48 are white, four are of Asian decent and eight are of mixed race. The program also fosters economic diversity: 44 percent of the children receive funding assistance through child care vouchers, United Way or Community Chest funds, the center's multiple child discount or in-house tuition assistance program.
Angela Gabennesch of Anderson Township said she sends her pre-school daughter to MLC in part because of its diversity -- but also because of the strong community Baumbach referred to.
"Knowing that there's such a strong community (at the center), I don't think it will fall apart," Gabennesch said.
"My kids can hum whole tracks off Miles Davis' Kind of Blue," Friedman said. "What MLC teachers help foster is a world view. Kids learn self-awareness. They have a strong sense of community, a strong sense of responsibility. No wonder parents are ready to fight for this kind of learning environment."
And the fight ahead is long. Besides finding permanent housing, both MLC and the clinic are losing a substantial amount of their funding because of the move. In both situations, EGDHA subsidized their rents in the form of very specific grants that allowed each institution to rent commercial space for about $3 per square foot.
Myers said that, since the institutions would no longer be located on association property, there would be no way to reduce their rent and, therefore, no way to offer assistance.
The EGDHA subsidized MLC's rent for 12 years, Friedman said, with the equivalent of an $860,000 grant. Without that money, the center must undergo an intense financial restructuring, including a 4 percent tuition increase effective in September that will cost the center some students.
Any drop in enrollment affects the center's delicate funding balance. Its total budget for 1999 was approximately $610,000, with salaries and benefits accounting for 81 percent.
"There is no question that the program is at risk," Friedman said. "The No. 1 priority of the Montessori Learning Center is to sustain the institution."
Other short-term priorities, he said, are to ensure that MLC's 15 kindergartners will experience a continuous education to prepare them for first grade and to support the center's staff in light of possible job cuts.
No jobs have been cut yet, Friedman said.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Apartments across from the center, on Southern Ave.,
are part of the move.
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To help the center make a smoother transition, EGDHA gave it $25,000 for moving costs and $25,000 in compensation for landscaping and playground renovations. That's on top of providing temporary, rent-free housing until August at Greenwood Hall Gymnasium, 3200 Burnet Ave., on the Health Alliance's Avondale campus.
"Fifty thousand dollars is a survival kit," Friedman said, stressing that MLC is working "closely and gratefully" with Christ Hospital but adding that they've put the center in a tough situation.
It's a familiar story for the Montessori Learning Center.
The first Montessori day care in Cincinnati, it fell into a financial deficit in 1976, just six years after it was founded. Ten months later, though, it was in the black after local people took interest in the school and made generous contributions.
But that was at a time when the program enrolled just 50 children. Now the program has 111 students and needs to expand. With 50 percent of the center's students attending on scholarship, MLC has no choice but to expand if it wants to survive, Friedman said, though expansion is the least of many worries at the moment.
Clinic in better position to move
At the Mount Auburn Clinic, meanwhile, the loss of its subsidized rent at the Gamble Building means losing a $67,000 grant that helped fund a rotation program for Christ Hospital internal medical residents.
That grant represents 5 percent of the clinic's total budget, said Jim Black, president and chief executive officer of Neighborhood Health Care Inc., but he and his staff will do whatever they have to in order to maintain the clinic. Black hopes the fact that the clinic's new building is on the bus line will bring in new patients, which could help alleviate the effects of the grant loss.
Realistically, though, he's looking at other options.
"Our other options are cuts, and of course we'd rather not," Black said. "But we're still looking at the whole situation."
At least the clinic has a permanent home to move into, Black said, and the move actually will turn out to be a benefit. The clinic actively sought another home through Gamble Realty and bought a new building in November.
The new location places it directly on the bus line, is bigger and has better parking, Black said.
"We're pleased about the move, because this building belongs to us," he said. "It's the right thing to do. It's the timing that's the problem."
Black maintains that the clinic needs at least until June 1 to move for a number of reasons, but mainly because the new building needs repairs. Workers there are in the process of repairing plumbing, installing electrical lines and moving walls.
The repairs and the move are putting a costly burden on the clinic, to the tune of approximately $400,000. Plus the clinic will have to pay for heat and water at the new facility. Currently it pays only for electricity at the Gamble Building.
Black stressed that the clinic was not in an adversarial position with Christ Hospital. Everyone is working together, he said. The clinic and the hospital are in the process of negotiating moving expenses and possibly expediting the move.
Black said the clinic officially found out it had to move about a month ago. But clinic officials knew something was brewing when Gamble Realty began bringing people through the building last summer.
In 1998, the city approved a block grant for the clinic for $25,000, Black said. The clinic was going to use the money to renovate the front of the clinic and its nursing station and had spent some of it on architectural drawings. Meanwhile, the clinic wanted to renegotiate its soon-to-expire lease before starting construction, he said, but Christ Hospital never replied.
Got only 45 days' notice
In July 1999, MLC's board of trustees also became aware that people were looking at the property, Friedman said. But EGDHA officials assured the board that nothing was imminent and that MLC would get plenty of notice in the event someone acted to buy the building.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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The entrance to the Montessori Learning Center
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MLC had been operating on a year-to-year lease. In 1995, it requested but didn't receive a four-year lease in connection with its plans to raise $50,000 for a much-needed playground renovation. Since August 1997, the lease arrangement has been unclear.
Last summer, after repeated lease inquiries from the MLC board, EGDHA officials responded that they were interested in selling the property. Based on the EGDHA communication, the board felt there was no reason to believe that a sale was imminent.
"Rather than jump the gun, we started planning a five-year strategic plan linked to the idea of a permanent home," Friedman said. "From everything we were able to find out, it was still too early to pull the alarm."
In October, Christ Hospital advised the MLC board that a reputable educational institution had made an offer to purchase the building but that it was still in the early stages of negotiation. According to Friedman, the hospital reassured MLC that it would work with the center to secure a new location. The board began actively looking for buildings and constructing alternative financing plans.
It was inconceivable to entertain the idea that MLC, perhaps in conjunction with the Mount Auburn Clinic, could just buy the property, Friedman said. Both institutions were benefiting from major subsidies to offset rent costs.
The board notified school parents about the building situation in January, Friedman said. Nonetheless, the Jan. 28 notice that MLC would have to move out by April 1 came as a shock. Many parents were dumbfounded that their kids would be shifted before the end of the school year.
"We expected six months," Friedman said, "and they gave us 45 days."
The center had plenty of time to work out its problems, said the Health Alliance's Myers, and parents should not direct their anger at Christ Hospital.
"What the school administration tells the parents is up to them," Myers said. "The administration had been told for quite some time that (EGDHA) was waiting for a buyer. That could happen any minute. You can't predict the day and time that it will happen."
Friedman regards Myers' comments as "bewilderingly insensitive" and said telling parents that the center's future was somewhat uncertain was excruciating.
It was equally excruciating to hear, said Keith Blake, father of three MLC children. Blake said when he initially found out about the building's sale, he thought his children would be able to finish the year in the current facility. When he found out they had to move in March, he was upset with Christ Hospital.
Blake still will keep his children at MLC but said he thinks the buildings have been sold because of cuts the Health Alliance has had to make.
"They have no choice but to unload assets not related to the Health Alliance," he said.
Myers said the sale of the properties had nothing to do with the relationship between the hospital and the Health Alliance.
When Gabennesch found out, she was sad and surprised but was not angry at Christ Hospital.
"We have to look at this from a positive angle," she said.
The move could pose quite an inconvenience for Blake, who lives in the West End. His two older children go to Sands Montessori and participate in MLC's before- and after-school programs. Because Sands is about a mile away from his house, he's not entitled to bus service. Blake has to pay to get his children transported from MLC to Sands.
"If the bus doesn't move with the school, it's going to be an inconvenience," he said. "That means going to work late and leaving early."
Blake said the threat to the program really upsets him and his wife.
"The staff really likes kids," he said, "and it shows in their attitudes. (They're) not there because it's just a job, (they're) there because (they) really like kids -- and that's rare."
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Jim Black, president and chief executive of
Neighborhood Health Care Inc.
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Since the beginning of February, the MLC board of trustees has been working around the clock to formulate a plan to move the 10,000-square-foot facility in one week to its temporary space while also financing a permanent location that could be school-ready by September.
"Christ (Hospital) has been very cooperative," Friedman said.
The hospital has promised to match the center dollar-for-dollar, up to $5,000, for the cost of bringing the temporary building up to code, on top of its $50,000 relocation grant.
"We hope a new home will ensure MLC's future," Friedman said.
After operating in Mount Auburn for three decades, MLC is committed to staying in the neighborhood, he said. Since looking at more than a dozen buildings in Mount Auburn, the board has identified a potential property and is preparing to negotiate a lease-to-purchase arrangement with the owner, which would make the property more affordable. The board has launched a new fund-raising campaign and has contacted a local bank that's committed to helping non-profit community institutions.
The property needs a lot of work to get it ready for classes in September, Friedman said. Conservative estimates show at least $500,000 worth of interior and landscape renovations.
"We would have to finance the renovations just to occupy the space," Friedman said.
He predicted the earliest closing date to be mid-April, which would leave the center only 4 1/2 months to finance and renovate its new facility. The entire interior of the prospective building has to be gutted, he said, adding that a special studio at the University of Cincinnati's School of Architecture and Interior Design will help MLC design the renovation this spring.
The center will move at the end of March and avoid disrupting the school year by using a week's break normally taken between the end of the school year and the start of the summer session in June.
Figuring out all the details
Tenants of the apartment building, unlike the school and the clinic, will not receive any financial assistance for their relocation. They were given the option of assistance from Gamble Realty in finding new housing along with their 30-day notice.
Only five tenants definitely are relocating with Gamble Realty, Myers said. Others are going elsewhere. Eleven tenants don't know what they're going to do.
When asked if the April 1 eviction breached any of the tenants' lease agreements, Myers said many of them didn't have leases and were renting on a month-to-month basis. They will be given some flexibility on staying until they can find another apartment, she said.
Toni Carr is being hit on all sides by the situation on Southern Avenue. She works as a teacher at the Montessori Learning Center and lives in one of the apartments across the street. She found out she was being evicted from her apartment when she came home and found a note from Gamble Realty slipped under her door.
"At first I was angry," said Carr, who has a 7-year-old son in addition to a newborn. "I just had a baby and had nowhere to move. Thirty days isn't a lot of time with two kids."
Carr said she moved to Mount Auburn so she could send her kids to Sands Montessori. She has yet to find a place to move, because she's had little time to look. Gamble Realty offered her two places, but one still had a tenant and the other was on the third floor.
"There is no way I'm moving to the third floor with two kids," Carr said. "There's nowhere to play."
Besides being short on time, Carr said she's also short on money. The single mom said it will cost her at least $1,200 plus moving expenses to relocate, and Gamble Realty is not paying for any of it.
"I don't have the money," she said, "and I'm trying to wait until the last minute, just hoping that they're going to do something."
Carr has put in double her normal hours at MLC for the past few weeks while packing up the center during school hours. The center cannot afford to close even for a day because it would lose funds, she said.
"Tensions are high, and we're losing kids," Carr said. "It's not a pleasant place right now. Our jobs aren't guaranteed, because there's no guaranteed space."
Still, the teachers and staff are dedicated to maintaining a positive environment, Baumbach said. This summer, the center will lease two busses, instead of one, to take students on their field trips and to places they'd normally walk to from the Gamble Building, like the pool and the park.
Packing has been turned into a learning experience for the children, Baumbach said. Some classes are decorating boxes to put the children's personal things in to be sealed and not opened until the center is in a permanent facility.
"The teachers are trying to figure out how to translate all of this adult information into (digestible) chunks for the children," Baumbach said. "They're giving a tremendous amount of time to figuring out all of the details."
Baumbach reflected on the original ideals of MLC's founder, Martha C. Gartrell, who began the Montessori program to specialize in supplying scholarships to needy, inner-city children for the opportunity to have a quality educational experience.
"A program like MLC is not supported by just one individual," she said. "We need to focus on Gartrell's vision, who ran around getting the waiting lists from other day care centers just to start this program and to keep it alive." ©
