‘It’s kind of scary'| Residents fear impact of potential school closing in Butler County (2024)

SEVEN MILE, Ohio — In this small village of roughly 712 people, a piercing siren goes off every day at 6 p.m. It’s the same tornado siren they test on the first Wednesday of every month.

Call it old-fashioned. Call it time for dinner. Call it part of the Seven Mile charm.

Village Mayor Missy Mick doesn’t know exactly why that siren goes off. She just knows it always has. In this village, there’s a convenience store. There’s a coffee shop. There’s a school.

And that’s about it.

That’s why Mick and other residents were so worried when they heard Edgewood school officials discuss closing the school many describe as the heart of Seven Mile.

Mick contacted the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Then, she called charter schools. If the Edgewood Early Childhood Center closed, she wanted something to replace it.

And she wanted a school – even if she didn’t really care what kind of school it was.

“It didn’t feel like we had a lot of time,” she said. “It felt urgent.”

Mick has lived in Seven Mile for 31 years. Her daughters went to the school that predates the Edgewood City School District. The problem is it’s the smallest building in the district.

And now its future is uncertain.

On a recent sunny evening, Mick walks past empty parking lots, playgrounds and classrooms at the school. She hopes it’s not a sign of what’s to come.

"I know there will be children here tomorrow,” she said. “But I would have different feelings if I knew it wasn't going to be filled. It would be sad. I would be worried."

Standing outside the school, she’s asked if she feels like district officials listen to her community. She doesn’t say anything for 25 seconds.

“Sometimes,” she said.

Edgewood Early Childhood Center Principal Jeff Banks said the building is so old it would need to be torn down rather than remodeled any further. He said he doesn’t feel singled out by district officials — it’s just a reality of the building’s age and the size of the village.

Another building in Trenton – Edgewood Primary – is a school officials are also debating on.

"It's a lot of heartfelt emotion, and I understand that,” said Edgewood Superintendent Kelly Spivey. “Anytime you have a school in your neighborhood, you want your kids to go to school there.”

But Spivey said about 1,000 fewer students go to the district than originally projected. District officials already cut $1.2 million in personnel and transportation costs in less than two years. Now, the school board wants to see what downsizing from five buildings to four would look like.

“We just want to make sure we make the best decision for our students,” Spivey said.

If the building in Seven Mile closes, young students there might have to take long bus rides in this rural district north of Hamilton. School officials said no decisions have been made.

Still, Spivey said she'd rather close a building than cut more student programs.

"Depending on who you ask, you get two different sides to the story,” she said.

Ask Cindy Wilson, and she'll tell you she worries an empty school would mean empty storefronts in Seven Mile. She said her coffee shop is the first business to open in the village in decades.

Wilson grew up here. Her parents farmed and her sisters went to the school in the village's center. She talks about meeting her neighbors at the fence with a fondness.

The building she's working in now used to be a candy store she and her friends would visit almost every day.

“When people move in, they don’t really move out,” she said. “Unless they die.”

When a tax levy failed last year, school board member Marc Messerschmitt said officials had to make cuts — cuts that they hadn’t made before, like busing and increasing fees for athletics.

“A lot of people thought we weren’t serious,” Messerschmitt said. “We were financially in a bad spot.”

He acknowledges times in the last few months where school officials have not been on the same page about the Edgewood Early Childhood Center. He called it very tense.

“Nothing is going to change next year,” he said of the school. “Most people are asking for a plan. That’s what we are trying to do.”

Just up the street from the school, Wilson said people told her she was crazy to open a coffee shop here. In 2018, she did it anyway, because she wanted to fight for her hometown.

In the corner of her store, she keeps a few pictures of what the old school used to look like.

“It's kind of scary to think of what might become of that property,” she said. “It's sad.”

The superintendent said school officials will formalize plans and meet with community members again in June. In the meantime, Wilson will keep fighting for Seven Mile.

One cup of coffee at a time.

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