Monday, October 22, 2012

Schenley petition/ 500 signatures reached

Number 500 was Toni Haney, who wrote:
"It was the place where my children and their friends received their educations while they matured and it deserves to be treated with respect and to shine on!"

11 comments:

Questioner said...

And Carl Swindell got it exactly right in this recent comment:

"Cause the school wouid of still been open if we knew the whole in the first place."

Anonymous said...

Well, if the building hasn't been sold yet, why is it too late? Maybe they could use that building to consiladate several other buildings that truly are in worse shape? Just curious.

Questioner said...

It is not too late! There are many options for use of the building. The important thing is for it not to be sold, so that at the very least future administrations can take advantage of these options.

Anonymous said...

Yes, but how much is it costing to "maintain" it while it sits vacant so it doesn't deteriorate any further? I wish that central office could just get their act together and make the necessay realignments in the near future before we end up spending even more money to keep moving schools to buildings that turn out to then close 2 years after paying for the move. They need to come up with a "master" plan for the next 10 to 15 years and implement it all at once so we just do things once instead of just using "bandades" all of the time.

Questioner said...

Michele Feingold sent in the comments on this topic that she made at today's public hearing:

Asbestos. Asbestos. Asbestos. For years, the supporters of Schenley high school have been advocating for Schenley and advocating for the truth about the building until we were blue in the face - to no avail. It was so obvious to all of us - engineers, architects, students, teachers, parents, community members - that we were being sold a bill of goods about Schenley. The injustice of it made our anger and sadness hard to shake. A good, model school in a beautiful, historic building that gave kids the clear message that they deserve the best, was closed under false pretenses. We finally have proof of what we knew all along. The real cost of removing ALL asbestos from Schenley? One million dollars. Mark Roosevelt fed us lies, the school board swallowed them, and our children were shuffled off into inferior buildings and in some cases inferior schooling.


The school board chose not to have point-counting sampling done on Schenley. The school board allowed Mark Roosevelt to get away with his scare tactics and falsehoods and reckless experimentation. The school board has refused to admit that closing Schenley and creating separate and unequal schools was a mistake. The school board has now voted to sell the building, closing off any hope of rectifying that mistake.

My daughter graduated with the last class of Schenley High School. My son is an 11th grader at Barack Obama Academy. He loves his school, as do I. However, I never felt good about Schenley being taken from them, especially based on lies and manipulation, and despite my loyalty to Obama and my appreciation for its excellent, dedicated staff and school spirit, I have had an uneasy feeling about its new location which the peewee football shootings did nothing to alleviate. How do you think prospective parents who don’t know Obama are going to view the school? How is housing the Obama Academy at Peabody going to help slow the flight of parents from the district?

I do not have children at University Prep or any other school, but I never supported separating and segregating Schenley’s students. It was a costly mistake, engineered by an arrogant man who soon went off to greener pastures, leaving ours more wilted and decayed. I ask you again, for the sake of our children and the future of this school district, to correct this mistake. Do not sell our children’s patrimony. Restore Schenley High School, and with it all of our hopes for the children of this school district. Thank you.


Anonymous said...

I have no idea if this is possible but is there any way to have a referendum be added to the ballot on November 6th asking the residents of the city to vote on whether or not Schenley should be sold? Can the public supercede the school board and/or superintendant?

Questioner said...

Probably only the school board could add the referendum. And it would be difficult to educate the public on the new information in the limited time available. The PG and Tribune still have not reported that the plaster has only trace amounts of asbestos.

Anonymous said...

There are now two very large FOR SALE
signs on the lawn in front of Schenley!

Questioner said...

How disrespectful! But they will help remind people to sign the petition.

Anonymous said...

Would it be possible to have equally large signs erected nearby (neighbors?) that ask why the PG and the Tribune won't report on the way the Board was misled by Roosevelt? Or something that says Schenley's asbestos abatement costs would amount to only $1 million?

Questioner said...

What an interesting idea! Neighbors?