March 27, 2007 - Volume 16, No. 13

a Winkler Company publication

Also featuring photos from our monthly supplement...

Oakwood home gets an award-winning kitchen

Hawthorn Hill neighbors propose local control of Wright home

Wright Family Foundation negotiating with National Park Service to take over site

By Phyllis Heck and Dolores Winkler-Wagner

A proposal to make Hawthorn Hill, the Wright Brothers’ home on Harman Avenue, a part of the National Park Service had a hearing last Tuesday evening at a meeting of the Hawthorn Hill Neighbors, city and National Park officials and Wright Family Foundation trustees Steve Wright and Amanda Wright-Lane. The meeting took place at the Oakwood City Building. According to Bill Butts, a resident of the Hawthorn Hill Neighborhood group, a letter dated March 6, 2007, sent to neighbors from Oakwood City Manager Norbert Klopsch, stated that the meeting was…”to share more information about the Wright family’s intentions for Hawthorn Hill and to discuss your
concerns and address your questions.”

The Wrights, descendents of the Wright Brothers, joined members of the Oakwood City Council, Mayor Judy Cook, City Manager Norbert Klopsch, Jay Weiskircher, assistant city manager, representatives from the National Park Service, Dayton History and Carillon Park in making their case for National Park stewardship of Hawthorn Hill. This historic Southern Colonial home built by Orville Wright and lived in by Orville, his sister, Katherine, and his father, Bishop Milton Wright, was acquired by NCR following the death of Orville in 1948.

Last year NCR deeded Hawthorn Hill to the Wright Family Foundation, whose trustees are Steve Wright and Amanda Wright-Lane. However, the monies in the Foundation are not sufficient to maintain the property indefinitely, thus the Wright trustees are negotiating with the National Park Service to take over the site.

Thirty families of the Hawthorn Hill neighborhood have signed a petition objecting to the Wright home becoming a National Park site, but they also feel the petition will have little effect; on February 27, the Dayton Aviation Heritage Foundation submitted to the district’s senators and congressmen a draft amendment that would add Hawthorn Hill and The Wright Company Factory to the National Park Service.

Neighbor William Butts stands with Hawthorn Hill in background.

The Hawthorn Hill Neighbors have asked that Hawthorn Hill be removed from this proposed amendment and have suggested to the Wrights that they allow a two- or three-year trial period to see if necessary local funding of the Wright Family Foundation can be realized. This action would permit Hawthorn Hill to be locally owned and managed and subject to the City of Oakwood’s laws and zoning ordinances, rather than becoming a National Park which would be immune to these laws and ordinances.

Residents of the Hawthorn Hill neighborhood had, until recently, been unaware of the details of these dealings, which were begun in August of ’06. At the March 20 meeting neighbors expressed concerns about problems that may arise from Hawthorn Hill’s becoming part of the National Park Service.

“If the Park Service owns Hawthorn Hill they are mandated to have the home open to the public.”

“Tours are being proposed for four days per week, Wednesday through Saturday with 15-person vans running from Carillon Park.”

“What about the children walking to Harman School and the Junior and Senior High School which are within a couple of blocks of Hawthorn Hill?”

“What about signage and street parking?”

Neighbors then made the following compromise proposal that they suggested would provide a more beneficial plan for the community – and the neighborhood.

“We the Neighbors…support the approval of a City of Oakwood Special Use Permit as a museum and guest house with the following restrictions and conditions of use.”

“We believe the Dayton community, through fund raising efforts, will provide the necessary endowment of the Wright Family Foundation to provide for the long-term preservation and maintenance of Hawthorn Hill. This will allow Hawthorn Hill to be locally owned and managed and be subject to the City of Oakwood’s laws and ordinances.”

1. Hawthorn Hill will continue to be owned by the Wright Family and managed by its trustees.

2. The house could continue to be used as a guest house.

3. House open to public on: That Day In May, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Dayton Air Show, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas Weekends….plus special events at discretion of Trustees. Access would be only by small van from Carillon Park with no walk-up admission.

4. No additional construction or improvements to house or additional property acquired. No visitors’ center, concessions, parking lots, shelters, ticket booths, guard houses, garages, etc.

A meeting of the Oakwood Planning Commission will meet on Wednesday, May 2 at 4:30 p.m. to discuss further the plans for Hawthorn Hill.

Oakwood schools highlighted at ASCD conference

Three Oakwood City Schools representatives traveled to Anaheim, California to present at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) annual conference on March 17 through 19. Kim Kappler, director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, led the team of Susan Lang, third grade Harman teacher, and Amanda Ammer, junior/senior high Teacher Enrichment Specialist (TES), in a multi-media presentation on the district’s work on differentiated instruction and its supportive professional development.

Pictured from left to right: Susan Lang, Kim Kappler, and Amanda Ammer.

The ASCD annual conference draws thousands of educators from around the country and the world. The conference offers 600 concurrent sessions on topics in the following strands: Policy and Advocacy to Support the Whole Child, Transformation of the Education Professions, and Enriching Learning and Teaching.
The group held a ticketed, advanced registration session entitled, “How One District is Making Differentiation Part of Every Classroom” to a full room of 60 participants. The presentation dynamically emphasized district-wide work by Oakwood teachers and administrators in recent years to promote differentiated instruction, especially through Professional Learning Communities. The presentation itself was differentiated, and it was geared to be 60 percent interactive.

Differentiated instruction is defined as modifying content, process, and/or product according to student interest, readiness, and learning profile. The presentation highlighted differentiation in action in the district with video clips of and artifacts from teachers’ differentiated lessons. The presenters also underscored the importance of Professional Learning Communities (PLC’s) in the enhanced use of differentiated instruction in more and more classrooms across Oakwood. Video clips of PLC’s and of testimonials from teachers regarding PLC’s benefits were shared with the attendees.

Surveys and comments indicate the presentation was very well received by participants.

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