If you want students to embark on aeronautics or aviations careers, put a school at the local airport. That’s what Toledo Public Schools and Superintendent Romules Durant did, and it’s not the only site-based magnet school where students get a jumpstart on their futures and a comprehensive K12 education.
“We’ve taken the school from out of the neighborhood to the place of industry,” explains Durant, named the 2024 Urban Educator of the Year by the Council of the Great City Schools. “When I talk about our aviation school, the best place to learn about aviation is the airport.”
Toledo Public Schools also operates grades 7-12 magnet schools at a hospital and a city metro park facility, where students are occasionally called up to cut down trees. Durant,—who, at 11 years, in one of the longest-serving urban superintendents in the nation—has worked with companies to turn their underutilized spaces into career academies.
Another unique element of Toldeo’s program is the students do all their learning at their CTE sites. They don’t have to be bussed over because they are not splitting their days at a traditional community school.
The district recently acquired even more space for three more CTE academies, athletics and other programming by taking over the University of Toledo’s former associate degree campus, which covers a whopping 134 acres.
Maintenance at a senior housing community located on the site will be done, in part, by students in the on-site construction and architecture academy. Education and social services academies will also be located at the new educational park.
This summer, the district opened a first-of-its-kind electric vehicle lab at one of its high schools, the Toledo Technology Academy of Engineering. Juniors and seniors will train at the facility, which will host classes for professional mechanics and other autoworkers looking to update their skills.
All these partnerships are a product of the business relationships Durant and his team have built by participating in the chamber of commerce, the Rotary Club and a regional development agency, among other organizations.
“If you’re not at the table, you’re not in the discussion,” he notes. “Every week, there’s a board meeting or a board retreat. This allows me, as a superintendent, to understand the infrastructure of other organizations, their financial magnitudes and all the other challenges.”
As for his longevity, he credits extensive collaboration. “It’s a trifecta—the relationship within your system, the relationship in your community and the relationship with your board,” he concludes. “All those things have to happen to have success.”
