By Antonio D. French
Filed Wednesday, May 24, 2006 at 6:00 AM
Several dozen parents, students and community leaders arrived at Cleveland High School last night on less than 24 hours notice to let their opinions be known about the fate of the "Old Castle." Labels: Schools
Five southside aldermen were spotted in the audience (Dorothy Kirner, Fred Wessels, Ken Ortmann, Jennifer Florida, and Craig Schmid). Three addressed Superintendent Creg Williams and the three school board members present at the meeting; Veronica O'Brien, Peter Downs and Donna Jones.
Alderman Schmid (20th Ward), a Cleveland alumnus, told the school board that they had a "golden opportunity" to show that there is a new way of doing business in the City's public schools.
Alderman Ortmann (9th Ward) said the district needs to develop a plan for what to do with all of its older buildings. He also criticized the board for calling the special board meeting just 24 hours before.
"I don't know whose idea it was," said Ortmann. "If there was a week's notice, you wouldn't be able to park around here."
Ortmann said he would have never supported building Mel Carnahan Middle School, which used to be a part of Creg Schmid's old 10th Ward. He said that the old Grant School was boarded up by SLPS, left to become a home for pigeons. "We have to come up with a maintenance program that saves these schools," he said.
"Five years from now, we'll be sitting at Roosevelt (High School) and going through the same thing -- or Meramec, or Shepard School," said Ortmann.
5 Comments:
Schmid is the 20th ward... used to be the 10th.
5/24/2006 7:24 AM
That's what I get for typing at 2 in the morning.
5/24/2006 8:44 AM
We appreciate your dedication!
5/24/2006 10:13 AM
Ken said that? Interesting.
A few years back, we all thought we'd be getting thousands of kids back in SLPS 'cause of the deseg settlement. The existing southside middle schools were overcrowded; and Bi-State was looking to sell their contaminated former bus garage. It seemed like a good deal to Craig and to the neighborhood groups. A grocery store would have been preferable, but highly unlikely given the demographics and the site location.
Then, SLPS didn't finish the site with the promised landscaping, and the school itself became a center of neighborhood problems with gangs of unsupervised pre-teens leaving and creating mayhem across Dutchtown in the afternoons.
Carnahan is slated to become a small high school with a high-tech emphasis. I hope it works out better than the conventional middle school did, with its very high principal turnover and perma-subs.
Grant School is, as I type, nearing completion on its conversion to senior-citizen apartments. The building was indeed mothballed 20+ years ago.
Now, what about Garfield - the only Southside elementary closed in 2003, in a 'hood chock full of kids! What's the plan for my neighborhood's vacant school?
5/24/2006 3:52 PM
Mel Carnahan Middle School is a high source of police calls in the area. About half of which result in police reports. Living a few blocks away from the school (10 or so by estimate), I would much prefer to have reused a rehabbed existing school structure, and place a grocery store, or other like commercial anchor store on that spot. Even expanding the Minnie Woods Park would have been a better option, but what is it they say about hindsight?
5/24/2006 5:00 PM
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