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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 > 27
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Bonaparte: Support to save Roosevelt not there
(Bonaparte in front of Roosevelt in 2006.)
In Saturday’s paper, one of the leaders of the effort to save Roosevelt High School from the wrecking ball did an abrupt public about-face.
Annie Bonaparte, a neighborhood activist in west Dayton who has been one of the most energized advocates for Roosevelt for most of this decade, said she now favors a plan to replace the 1923 high school with a new elementary school and city recreation center.
My colleague Joanne Huist Smith took the call from Bonaparte on Friday and said it was an emotional conversation with Bonaparte crying through much of it. But her bottom line reasoning was this — over her seven years working to save the school, Bonaparte did not see the kind of community support needed to make it happen. And if it’s not going to be saved, then Bonaparte wants to see the more than $30 million the city and school district have on the table for their plan spent in west Dayton.
Her comments echoed something former board member Gail Littlejohn said to me in the summer of 2006 when the school board voted to change its master plan to include the replacement of Roosevelt with a new school. Littlejohn said in the month or so between the board’s announcement that Roosevelt would be demolished and the final vote she only had a couple of phone calls of complaint. If the school were truly a treasure that the city wanted to save, she said, there would be a groundswell of support that the board wouldn’t be able to ignore.
What is your reaction to Bonaparte’s view that the community simply did not step up to save the school and now it is time to move on?
(Image credit: Bill Reinke, DDN)
Permalink | Comments (16) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools, School Construction
