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Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2008 > January > 24
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Is it too late to revive the Roosevelt debate?
(Roosevelt High School in its glory days in an undated DDN file photo.)
We’ve had some discussions here at GOTB about when the appropriate time is for a community to object to the school board’s plans for demolishing schools to make way for new construction and when it is simply too late to change course.
The latest example is Roosevelt High School. In today’s paper, I wrote about the internal debate at the NAACP about whether that group has formally endorsed a last ditch effort to save the school or not. That’s still unclear. The NAACP’s leaders need to get on the same page.
But near the end of today’s story, a bigger question emerged — is it too late to save Roosevelt?
Remember, this issue is more than four years old. The question of what to do with Roosevelt has been up in the air since school administrators moved out and left the building empty in the summer of 2003.
In May 2006 — 18 months ago — the board announced its final decision to raze the school and replace it with a new elementary school and a city-owned recreation center at the site.
That last serious discussion about the issue came in late 2006, when developer Beth Duke asked the city to block demolition. Nothing came from that.
But for today’s story, school construction chief John Carr said the school’s boilers already have been removed (they will be re-used in newly constructed schools), asbestos removal is underway and bids already were received for demolition last week. He said school officials believe they have an acceptable low bidder, although they are researching the company, and if that bid is accepted, demolition would likely begin by April 1.
At this stage of the game, the decision appears all but irreversable. Now, there is a new school board, so attitudes about the school could have changed. Two board members — Joe Lacey and Shelia Taylor — have expressed clear support for preservation of historic schools and a third, Nancy Nerny, expressed some support for preservation during the fall election campaign.
We don’t know for sure where two other new board members — Jeff Mims and Ronald Lee — stand. I am presuming Yvonne Isaacs and Stacy Thompson remain supportive of the direction set by the prior board.
Reversing field on Roosevelt now would be a tough call. Some of the work at the school may have already damaged the integrity of the building. It may be too late for a new direction.
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