Change is in the air at the former Robinson Middle School. Whether it will lead to improved student performance is unknown, but it holds the promise of better days to come.

Students at Robinson do poorly on state standardized tests. The Ohio Department of Education says the school has been in "academic emergency" for several years. What Toledo Public Schools has been doing there hasn't worked.

So district officials, with the cooperation of the Toledo Federation of Teachers, have decided to do things differently at Robinson. Out are all the teachers, administrators, and others who worked there last school year. Most have been transferred to other schools because, schools Supt. Jerome Pecko says, they aren't blamed for Robinson's failure.

As part of broader school reform, the former middle school now includes classes from kindergarten through eighth grade, with a largely new student body. Much of what else is new at Robinson will be unique.

The district will choose a new principal and new lead teacher for the school. These officials, rather than the district, will hire about two dozen teachers.

All of the new teachers will be veterans with at least five years of experience at TPS. Yet they will be hired not according to seniority, but on the basis of how good a match they are to Robinson's needs. Mr. Pecko said he expects teachers to jump at the opportunity to make a difference.

A new merit-pay system will compensate Robinson teachers for success. The school will use a reading program that has worked at five other district schools.

A school learning program is designed to improve behavior and the school's climate, and to enable parents to help their children do better in their studies. A summer camp will open next year.

More broadly, Robinson and the former Leverette Middle School are designed to become hubs for their communities. United Way of Greater Toledo will provide medical, dental, mental health, and social services to the community.

Such community-based services are easier for adults to obtain for themselves and their children. Improving the quality of life in local neighborhoods can have a positive effect on school performance.

The idea is similar to an initiative in the Syracuse, N.Y., school district that was the subject of a recent special report in The Blade. The greatest lesson from the Syracuse experiment is that school politics, union perquisites, and other considerations must take a back seat to an honest appraisal of what works and what doesn't in public schools.

It is too early to tell whether the changes at Robinson will bring long-lasting improvements to the chronically under-performing school. Ideas that work will be exported to other city schools; those that fail will be modified or abandoned and replaced with new ideas.

For the moment, the reforms suggest a new, positive attitude among Toledo Board of Education members, TPS officials, and leaders of administrative and teachers unions. Gone, or at least buried for the moment, are the suspicions and antagonisms that too often have characterized relations among the school board, unions, and their constituents.

Instead, all parties appear willing, even eager, to experiment and embrace change. For that, the Toledo Family Robinson earns an "A" for effort.

Find more at toledoblade.com/educationmatters.

First Published August 3, 2011, 4:26 a.m.