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Dave Starr
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Sealing asbestos is far safer than removing it. As long as it's not disturbed, there's no danger.
Personally, I think historically significant buildings should be saved. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Fri May 16, 2008 7:13 am |
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Adam
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http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/05/four_flint_schools_prepare_to.html
FLINT, Michigan -- It's the end of the school year, and for four Flint schools, the end of an era.
Students and staff at Whittier Classical Academy, Johnson Accelerated Academics Academy and Cummings and Gundry elementaries are relishing their final days in the buildings that will soon be shuttered under the district's cost-savings plan.
The impending closures have brought mixed emotions --Â nostalgia, nerves and resignation -- for many of those involved. The district has yet to decide what will become of the buildings, which officials say are aging and too expensive to maintain.
"People are realizing that as tough of a decision it is to make, it's one of those situations where you really don't have a choice," Superintendent Linda Thompson said. "We have to do something to lower costs."
The budget cuts aim to prevent a $12-million deficit in 2008-09 by consolidating schools and cutting 137 jobs. Flint schools for years have been plagued with declining enrollment and rising operational costs.
The district has space for 35,000 students but actually has fewer than 15,000. The four schools to be closed have less than 200 students each.
Still, the moves are jarring to many youngsters and parents.
Students from Cummings, 2200 Walton Ave., will be transferred to Coolidge Elementary and students from Gundry, 6031 Dupont St., to Wilkins Elementary.
Students from Johnson, 5323 Western Road, will go to their neighborhood schools, and the alternative education program at that school will be discontinued.
"I like this school, it's really close," said Linda Gray, whose granddaughter Xylia Sain, 6, goes to Cummings. "People don't want an empty building."
Lee and Rayvena Johnson said they've talked to several people who plan to pull their children out of Whittier, even though the students are being moved to Central, right next door. Rayvena Johnson said she's not sure where she will enroll her 13-year-old daughter, Rayvon, who is nervous about how the Whittier students will be treated.
Whittier, 701 Crapo St., has application-based enrollment and an accelerated curriculum for more advanced students. The youngsters wear uniforms, giving Whittier more of an elite feel.
The two student bodies will have separate lunches, separate bells and separate floors, but how separate can they really be? Rayvon Johnson asked.
"We'll be wearing uniforms so they'll notice us," she said. "I'm worried about the older kids."
Lee Johnson said he's concerned about how the school plans to fit all of the Whittier students at Central. Whittier is currently a seventh-10th grade program but will expand through 12th grades by the end of 2009.
"If that was such a special program, why wouldn't you keep them separate?" Lee Johnson said. "It seems to me they don't care about the program."
Whittier teacher Jeff Bean, who coordinates the International Baccalaureate program there, said most people have accepted or are resigned to the move. Many students are excited because they will be able to play sports at Central, he said. Whittier doesn't have athletics.
"When we first made the announcement, people had concerns. They were thinking we are the building, but we're not," he said. "We are a program within a building."
But Bean questions why Whittier is being moved to Central. He said it might make more sense to move to Southwestern Academy, since the school is returning to application-based enrollment, which Whittier has now.
"It's like we have to compete for students with Southwestern now," he said.
Bean is not one of the 240 teachers and administrators who have been pink-slipped. Some will be called back into the school system when space becomes available as other staff members retire, resign or move to other buildings.
Whittier Principal Beverley Payne, who received a layoff notice, is hoping she is able to return next year. She said the school has had two parent meetings to discuss the move.
"They're a little anxious," she said. "We've discussed their concerns and most are understanding." |
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Sun Jun 01, 2008 2:38 pm |
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Deena
F L I N T O I D
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nd a full 40% of the students are looking elsewhere.
Why don't they cut where it makes sense?
1. Go to a 4 day week.
2. Colsolidate the administration building with another building--Whittier would be nice, but the Sarvis Center would also work.
3. Eliminate bussing completely for secondary schools. I'll point out that Saginaw has open schools and NO bussing at any age.
4. Two middle schools feeding into fout high schools is beyond stupid.
I've watched the Flint board screw up long enough to roll my eyes at each bonehead move that HURTS kids. Let's count some of the closings that have removed kids from the district.
1. Walker
2. Doyle-Ryder challenge program
3. Science/math magnet at Central and Northen.
4. The "magnet" elementaries that really only moved trouble-makers into a different building.
5. Here's my favorite: closing schools with so little thought to kids and logistics that a school like Washington has a boundary that sits at the street the school is located on.
6. Closing Cody
They're going to blow it again, rumor has it that Pierce-Sarvis--the elementary with exemplary MEAP scores is slated to be closed. Should anyone be surprised? |
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Sun Jun 01, 2008 4:50 pm |
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Josh Freeman
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| You know what doesn't make sense about past school closings by the Board... in my neighborhood, for example, there was Potter and Sobey. They closed Sobey, a fairly new building by Flint standards. Then the following year they are renting space at Sobey to put the kindergarten kids there because there isn't enough room at Potter. Where is the master plan for the district? |
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Mon Jun 02, 2008 7:16 am |
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Dave Starr
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| Plan???? Flint?????? |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:24 pm |
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rapunzel11
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quote:
Josh Freeman schreef:
You know what doesn't make sense about past school closings by the Board... in my neighborhood, for example, there was Potter and Sobey. They closed Sobey, a fairly new building by Flint standards. Then the following year they are renting space at Sobey to put the kindergarten kids there because there isn't enough room at Potter. Where is the master plan for the district?
The board especially McMobley hated being proved that students would not fit into Washington and Potter when Sobey and Homedale were closed.
Admin said they would fit, they revised capicity at both buildings.
I told you so did not sit so well. Never would 720 fit in either school.
Dr Chow had a master long term plan that was voted down and CHRIS MARTIN came up with his own plan.
The same thing happened when the pretend Dr. of OZ tried to stuff all into SW. Parents were happy with SW being an academy.
Kids were moved mid -year, Chaos, major loss of students -loss of educational hours.
We were stepping back instead of going forward.
We can go forward, but long after my child and many like her have left.
It is a new day and again we are working on a long term plan.
No more transitions or lack of stability for my daughter. No more bullying.
I have faith Flint Schools will be once again a great educational system.
Long after they failed my child, time and time again.
Peace,
RAP |
_________________
The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.
John F. Kennedy, speech at Vanderbilt University, May 18, 1963 |
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Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:02 am |
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Adam Ford
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http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/06/generations_of_students_past_a.html
FLINT, Michigan -- Some 218 students will say goodbye today to the 83-year-old hallways of Whittier Classical Academy, a stately brick building that houses some of the brightest and most gifted students in Flint.
Staff leave on Friday and then the doors will be locked up, leaving the building with an undefined future.
"It's horrible," said La'Asia Johnson, 13, a Whittier eighth-grader who will have to finish her education in neighboring Central Academy.
When Whittier Junior High School opened in 1925, it was a symbol for the future of education in Flint. The four-story building cost an astronomical $1 million to construct.
"When I went there, Flint was a boom town," said Genesee Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey Neithercut, who finished Whittier in 1963. "Whittier had more than 1,000 students jammed and crammed. When classes changed, you could barely move down the hallway."
In students' new home at Central, Whittier will continue to exist in a way. Students will have separate classes, on separate floors from Central's students.
Seventh-grader Melissa McDougall fears moving to Central will make it difficult to learn amongst the chaos of two schools.
"It's bad," McDougall, 12, said. "It's going to be hard to learn in a building with two different schools. Over the summer (my family and I) will think about my options."
Generations of families have walked the same old halls at Whittier, where students formed friendships and whispered adolescent secrets -- even carried on the urban myth that the school was built on the grounds of an insane asylum. (The Flint Cultural Center actually stands where Oak Grove Sanitarium once was.)
At its peak in 1929, the school housed 1,675 students and enrollment stayed about 1,000 through the 1970s, said Grace Tucker, reference librarian at the Flint Public Library.
Now, the hallways are decidedly less crowded and low enrollment in the school district is one of the reasons the school is closing.
Whittier, Johnson Accelerated Academics Academy, Cummings Elementary and Gundry Elementary are closing this year under the district's cost-savings plan that also cut 137 jobs as part of an effort to hedge off a $12 million deficit.
The school was constructed with 23 classrooms plus multiple rooms for extracurricular activities such as music, cooking, typing and woodshop.
In the 1970s, Whittier introduced its gifted and talented program.
"Whittier's advanced study program is really head and shoulders above the other middle schools," Neithercut said. "No sooner you create success, you shut it down."
The district has yet to finalize any plans for the school's building, but will have security systems in place, said Craig Carter, the district's spokesman.
Flint parent Louis Garrett said this move could destroy what he considers one of the best school programs in the area.
His 16-year-old daughter, Alexandria, has been in Whittier since the seventh grade and is unhappy about the move, he said.
"It seems to me they're reducing it to a basement-type program with no growth or development," he said. "Where is this program going? All I know is that it's going in the basement of Central."
Despite being housed in Central, Whittier will continue to grow. The district plans to expand the current seventh-10th grade program to include 11th and 12th grades by the end of 2009.
"Whittier was an excellent preparatory school," said attorney J. Dallas Winegarden Jr., who finished Whittier in 1959 and graduated from Central in 1962. "It's a tragedy the school has to close.
"I had an opportunity to tour Central High School and I can assure parents students will continue to get an outstanding education there." |
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Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:47 am |
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Deena
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I am fascinated that this quote from Judge Nethercut is missing from the original story:
"Whittier's advanced study program is really head and shoulders above the other middle schools," Neithercut said. "No sooner you create success, you shut it down."
He sees as do so many other parents.
Gifted and performance based education is not "elitist" We owe EVERY Flint student the right to become all that they can be---and if it costs $$$, so be it. I'm sure it's a pittance compared to discipline and special programs for the kids not "getting it". |
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Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:27 pm |
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twotap
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Despite being housed in Central, Whittier will continue to grow. The district plans to expand the current seventh-10th grade program to include 11th and 12th grades by the end of 2009.
So its not being shelved just moved?? How much ya wanna bet that the parents having such a fit about having their kids move a few hundred feet to a different building had (especially if they were self proclaimed proud liberals) no problem with the forced busing fiasco from some years back. Taking someone elses kids from their suburban neighborhoods out of the modern well equipped schools their parents were paying big property taxes to support and busing them miles to some crappy dangerous inner city school was probably a wonderful plan in their mind if it helped "Diversify" the education experience. Couldnt this plan be looked upon as the same but on a smaller scale??? Hell they dont even need buses. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Thu Jun 12, 2008 8:55 pm |
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Dave Starr
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quote:
Deena schreef:
I am fascinated that this quote from Judge Nethercut is missing from the original story:
"Whittier's advanced study program is really head and shoulders above the other middle schools," Neithercut said. "No sooner you create success, you shut it down."
He sees as do so many other parents.
Gifted and performance based education is not "elitist" We owe EVERY Flint student the right to become all that they can be---and if it costs $$$, so be it. I'm sure it's a pittance compared to discipline and special programs for the kids not "getting it".
A good education is a lot cheaper than jail. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Fri Jun 13, 2008 7:12 am |
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