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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > January > 22
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Has the clock struck midnight on Roosevelt HS?
The Dayton chapter of the NAACP made an 11th hour plea Tuesday for an audience with the Dayton school board about saving Roosevelt High School from the wrecking ball. But the clock may have already struck midnight for the school.
Adam Stone, representing the NAACP, asked the board during the public comment period of its meeting at Cleveland Elementary School to allow the group to present what it believes is a viable plan to save and redevelop the school.
School board President Yvonne Isaacs did not respond but after the meeting said she is unsure how the board will proceed. Considerable preparations already have been made to demolish the 1923 school, she said.
The board voted in May of 2006 — nearly 18 months ago — to tear the school down and replace it with a new elementary school for boys and a city-owned recreational complex. That decision came after more than two years of discussions about Roosevelt and two outside development plans that the board ultimately rejected because it did not believe they were adequately financed.
Demolition was delayed from the original plan to raze the school in 2007 but is expected early this year.
This was a tough decision that begged some even more difficult questions about how the community should make these choices.
The old school board made it clear last year that it did not intend to look back on the 2006 decision. But this is a new year and a new school board with some new faces. It remains to be seen if their outlook will be different.
Permalink | Comments (5) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
Tonight is your chance to see a new school
Some critics of Dayton school construction program say the new schools aren’t as sturdy as schools built 100 years ago and that they won’t last.
The question is whether ANY building constructed today matches the sturdiness of the past? The simple fact is we just don’t build today the way we once did.
Even so, school construction folks say they are certain the schools they are building today will last 60 years or better and the district now has a maintenence only levy (passed along with the bond issue) to guarantee money is available to care for these buildings in a way those old buildings were not cared for when money got tight. That should exend the lives of the schools being built today.
So are the new buildings really as flimsy and ugly as some preservationist say? The school board tonight will meet at Cleveland Elementary School — a new building located at 1102 S. Pursell Ave. This is the first of four meeting this year held at new schools around the district.
Cleveland is easy to get to. Just take Wyoming Street east from Miami Valley Hospital for a couple miles. Just before it hits a dead end you will see the new Cleveland on the right. The meeting is at 6 p.m.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What a new school means to the kids
(Thurgood Marshall High School students file through the rotunda on the way to lunch.)
Last week I wrote about the real, undeniable value an old school has to its community. At the “closing ceremony” for Colonel White High School, we saw how much a school truly is a part of a million personal histories in a community and how those individuals see the bricks-and-mortar structure as important to the character of the neighborhood and city.
Today, we see the other side of the story — what a new school can mean for the kids who go there to learn.
Overall, I could find no kids while visiting the new Thurgoood Marshall High School who had any sentimental sorrow about leaving the old Colonel White. Top student Adrienne Fairbanks summed up the feelings of her classmates nicely as she described the academic and attitude benefits of attending high school in a state-of-the-art building.
The new school offers technology and flexibility, she said, that made it easier to comprehend the work in her math class. A new school built in an orderly, planned way eliminates excuses for being late to class and new security features made Fairbanks feel safer at school.
More importantly, Fairbanks and others told me they felt an old school building forced teachers and students to think and work “the old way.” Whereas the new building gives them modern tools and infuses new college-like learning spirit into the classrooms.
So that was the students’ take at Thurgood Marshall on my visit last week. I’ll start the discussion by saying both points of view have validity — the students who want a modern place to learn and the community folks who want to preserve their history. That’s what makes this a tough problem.
Ideally, old schools might be saved but used for other purposes, not as schools, going forward. The problem is a lack of money and re-use options for so many old schools. Ultimately, a lack of resources is forcing these tough choices.
What is your reaction to the differing points of view of today’s Marshall students vs. graduates of Colonel White?
To view the Thurgood Marshall High School floor plan, go here.
(Image credit: Ty Greenlees, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (11) | Categories: School Construction
