I have always lived in the Mariemont School District, which includes the Villages of Fairfax, Mariemont, and Terrace Park, and a section of Columbia Township that runs along and near Wooster Pike. Although I knew that the Mariemont School District was once the Plainville School District and that Terrace Park once had a school that educated students from kindergarten through 12th grade, I can’t say that I gave much thought to how the Mariemont district was formed or Fairfax’s role in the process.
In the late 1940s, many communities had their own school districts and there were dozens of districts in Hamilton County. Terrace Park, with their one school, had a district. Newtown had a district consisting only of a grade school. The Newtown district paid tuition to Terrace Park to educate their high school students.
These small districts were overseen by the Hamilton County Board of Education. Many had financial problems and relied heavily on state funding. So, the Ohio Board of Education was exploring ways to reduce expenditures. Studies commissioned by the state recommended consolidation of some districts.
In the mid-1940s, the county school board proposed consolidation of the Indian Hill and Terrace Park districts. Indian Hill agreed with the plan to consolidate at that time, but Terrace Park did not. When the merger fell through, Indian Hill focused on improvements to their district, including building a new $800,000 school. Indian Hill also successfully added three sections of their community, which had previously been within the Madeira and Terrace Park school boundaries, to their district.
In 1951, the county board proposed merging the Indian Hill, Madeira, Newtown, and Terrace Park districts. Terrace Park residents, now accepting that their school was in financial trouble, were agreeable to consolidation. Indian Hill, however, was not. Although Indian Hill officials stated that they wished to help their fellow districts, they were not willing to cede control of their district, including their new school, to people outside their community. Further, Indian Hill requested exempted status, made possible by the additional territory added to their district. Exempted status would free them from county board involvement in their affairs. After a court battle, Indian Hill was granted exempted status and Terrace Park’s hopes for a merger with Indian Hill were dashed. Terrace Park and Newtown couldn’t merge with Madeira because the district wouldn’t be contiguous without Indian Hill.
So, in the mid-1950s, the Terrace Park district was in dire straits. Two-thirds of their school funding came from the state. They had missed out on consolidation with the wealthier Indian Hill district. There was no benefit to consolidating with the struggling Newtown district. The only other possibility was to consolidate with Mariemont.
At that time, the Mariemont school district consisted of Fairfax, Mariemont, and Plainville. Each of the three communities had an elementary school with the high school located in Mariemont. Mariemont’s residential real estate valuation was boosted by the properties in their industrial area. Of course, Fairfax contributed property taxes but, as Mariemont resident and school board member Arthur Oldham so undiplomatically put it, other areas of the district were “paying the freight” for the children of Fairfax.
If you read my The Long Road to Incorporation posts [The Long Road to Incorporation (Part One) and The Long Road to Incorporation (Part Two)], you
may recall that Fairfax had property that was the envy of every tax-grabbing
government entity in the area – the Ford Transmission Plant. Sweetening the pot
was the Socony Vacuum Oil Company which was also located in the Red Bank
industrial area. Fairfax prevailed against the City of Cincinnati in the battle
for the Ford plant and the plant was part of the now-incorporated village.
However, the northern part of the Red Bank area of Fairfax extending east to the
western side of lower Germania Avenue was part of the Cincinnati School
District and had been for decades. Most children in this area attended grade
school in Linwood or Madisonville and then went to Withrow High School.
In February 1956, 10 Fairfax families who lived within the Cincinnati School District petitioned the Cincinnati Board of Education to transfer the Red Bank area into the Mariemont School District. The parents explained that Mariemont schools were closer to their homes and being part of the Mariemont district would make it easier for their children to participate in community activities. Transportation was a problem because the children had to walk across railroad tracks, busy streets, or steep embankments to get to a public bus stop because the district didn’t provide school buses for them. Some parents complained that they had to buy a second car so mothers could drive their kids to school or the bus stop. The petitioners were represented by attorney (and future Fairfax mayor) Ralph Mitchell.
We can only speculate why the petition was filed at this particular time. Was it because with Fairfax’s recent incorporation the Red Bank parents thought it made sense to join the Mariemont district with the rest of the village? Had safety and transportation issues recently become a bigger concern? Did the residents initiate the petition, or did someone persuade them to petition Cincinnati schools about the transfer? Was it just coincidence that this petition by residents in a tax-rich area was filed at the same time that a tax-poor community was seeking a merger with the Mariemont district?
Not surprisingly, the Cincinnati Board of Education was opposed to transferring this area to the Mariemont district. The property taxes there generated around $230,000 annually in funding for Cincinnati students. The Cincinnati Board requested a hearing on the issue before the State Board of Education.
The hearing before the State Board took place on June 14, 1956. Ralph Mitchell presented the petitioners’ arguments that transferring the area to Mariemont Schools would save time and money for the families, eliminate the safety hazards the children faced, and allow children to participate in community activities. Cincinnati Board representatives downplayed the transportation issue, saying that they provided transportation to students who lived more than two miles from school. They further stated that it was unfair to Cincinnati to take away the hefty tax revenue for the “convenience” of a few students. They said they were open to paying tuition to Mariemont schools for interested students or providing transportation to Cincinnati Schools. The State Board of Education took the petition under advisement.
On the other front, on July 31, 1956, the Hamilton County Board of Education held a special meeting regarding the consolidation of the Mariemont and Terrace Park districts. Cincinnati board members attended, accusing the Mariemont board of attempting to “steal” the industrially rich area of Fairfax from the district that had long educated the children living there. They argued that Mariemont wanted the Red Bank area because it included the Ford plant and that Mariemont and Terrace Park were pursuing a merger to convince the State Board to transfer the Red Bank area to the Mariemont district. Arthur Oldham admitted that the Mariemont board wanted to help Terrace Park but needed the Red Bank area to make the merger feasible. Cincinnati asked the county board to defer a decision on the Mariemont-Terrace Park merger until after the state rendered a decision on the Red Bank matter.
On August 7, the Hamilton County Board of Education unanimously approved the Mariemont-Terrace Park merger. Arthur Oldham issued the following statement on behalf of the Mariemont Board:
Provided the state board of education approves the transfer of the Fairfax area, as petitioned, to the Mariemont Exempted Village School District, the Mariemont board will be glad to accept the transfer of Terrace Park local school district to the Mariemont school district. If, however, the state board does not approve the Fairfax area transfer, as petitioned, it will then be necessary for the Mariemont board to withhold its decision on this proposal until a more comprehensive study of all pertinent factors can be completed.
Oldham further said that as much as Mariemont wanted to help Terrace Park out of its difficult position, the Mariemont district already had the highest school tax rate in the county and the board didn't want a merger to add a financial burden to taxpayers.
On August 13, the State Board of Education unanimously denied the petition to transfer the Red Bank area to the Mariemont School District.
The families in the disputed area did get some assistance beginning with the 1956-57 school year. Cincinnati schools provided bus transportation for the children in the Red Bank area to Linwood School. They also began paying tuition for the children on the western side of lower Germania so they could attend Mariemont schools with their neighbors across the street.
As we now know, even without the property taxes from the Ford and Socony plants, Terrace Park became part of the Mariemont School District beginning with the 1957-58 school year. Plainville School closed after the 1956-57 school year and the Plainville children began attending Terrace Park Elementary.
In the next decade, there were at least three more petitions requesting that the Red Bank area be transferred to the Mariemont District, all of which failed. However, in May 1958, the Ohio Board of Education transferred the area to the east of Red Bank Road, which included the western side of lower Germania and the future location of the Virginia Avenue business park, from Cincinnati Schools to the Mariemont District.
This 2010 school district boundary map from the Census Bureau (census.gov) shows the current boundaries of the Mariemont School District. The district is outlined by the purple circles:
A closer look at the Fairfax portion of the map shows how
much of the village is excluded from the Mariemont district. The western
boundary of Fairfax is formed primarily by Red Bank Road.
Today, there is only one remaining residence within the
Village of Fairfax that is part of the Cincinnati district, but to this day, the property
owners of the businesses on Fair Lane, Ford Circle, and much of Red Bank Road
still pay school property taxes to Cincinnati.
Sources
Cincinnati Enquirer, various dates, 2/28/1956 - 5/13/1958
Cincinnati Post, various dates, 3/3/1956 - 8/3/1956
Eastern Hills Journal, 4/25/1984
Detailed sources available upon request.
