Dispute over West Toledo school

WEST TOLEDO - Some West Toledo residents think they've been duped about what might be coming to their neighborhood. It was supposed to be a junior high, but that's no longer the case.

The area in dispute is near the University of Toledo, at the corner of Kenwood and Douglas. It's the site of an old Synagogue.

Originally St. Francis de Sales High School was going to put in a junior high, but those plans fell through. Now the Glass City Academy is looking to move in.

The academy's Web site says its mission is to provide a second chance for dropout and highly at-risk youth to complete high school. Wednesday night, some people living in West Toledo were not discussing whether or not they approve of charter schools, but how the process shook out.

Apparently the special use permit approved for St. Francis is actually assigned to the building, not the project. So now the building's owner, the University of Toledo, can sell the property with the permit to be a school.

"We think we got hoodwinked a little bit because they got this SUP off the skirts of another school and it wasn't even the same type of school of the same type of curriculum," said West Toledo resident Donald Greenburg.

What most of the neighbors wanted Wednesday night was simply due process for this new school.

"The SUP was issued for a junior high school. Now that's not what's happening now. They want to put a high school in, which is a two year school and we just want to know why we weren't brought into the process originally," said Greenburg.

So far the neighbors have been told by the plan commission that the special permit can be transferred to the new buyer.

Those residents decided they may need to go to court over this, possibly asking a judge to give them that due process and fully discuss this new proposal. They want to do it fast, because it's believed UT and the new school will close on the sale by the end of May.