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The basics of the Doherty Lotspeich Lower School
What to know about new Seven Hills building: It’s consolidating 2 into 1
Unity is the through line at Seven Hills School.
The pricy private institution, located on 50 acres along Red Bank Road in Madisonville, is providing that with its latest project: A new school building that consolidates kindergarten through fifth-grade students from two buildings into one.
When it opens in the fall of 2027, the new Doherty Lotspeich Lower School will “feel like a community in a community,” said Head of School Matt Bolton.
As part of a larger unification plan, the addition will accommodate K-5 students from the existing Lotspeich school, which is currently located in an adjacent building. That structure will eventually be razed for new green space.
The new school will also become home to students attending Seven Hill’s Doherty Lower School in East Walnut Hills. Seven Hills earlier this spring sold that building to Springer School and Center, a private school for students with learning challenges. Springer will use it as a high school after the Doherty students move to Madisonville.
Seven Hills decided to consolidate to meet a growing need for lower school enrollment at Lotspeich and declining demand at Doherty.
Construction on the new Doherty Lotspeich building officially began on April 2 on the north end of its campus. The space, accessed via Ellmarie Drive from Red Bank, is cordoned off with construction fencing.
Lower school will focus on outdoor learning
Bolton, now in his second year as head of school after 12 years as principal of Seven Hills High School, said administrators asked members of the school community what they wanted in a new lower school. “I think we learned the most from the students,” he said.
They wanted – and will get – their own cafeteria and auditorium, community spaces and access to nature. The new building will also include places outside to read and eat, with every classroom including a door to the outdoors.
Reflecting its focus on outdoor learning, the school will also add 180 oak trees to Doherty Lotspeich grounds. They are already growing in a Seven Hills campus nursery, started from acorns harvested from Doherty land.
New building will reflect unity goals
The new lower school’s in-classroom approach will also reflect Seven Hills’ goals to unify students of all ages in at least three ways:
“Your campus gets bigger as you get bigger,” Bolton said.
About Seven Hills School
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Seven Hills School spending $37M, most for new K-5 building | Going Up
Reporting by Patricia Gallagher Newberry, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
