By Travis Reems
Filed Friday, September 22 at 8:29 PM
On the evening of Thursday September 28, at 6 PM, the St. Louis Public Schools district, in partnership with the Alliance to Save Cleveland High, will be holing a townhall meeting at Cleveland High School, located at 4352 Louisiana Ave, for the purpose of discussing with the community the "whats and hows of rennovation and rebuilding our beloved Castle," according to a release by the Alliance. The district's Building Commissioner, Deana Anderson, and her staff will be on hand to give details about the school's state and answer questions about rennovation efforts.
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From last weeks' South City Journal:
Shawn Clubb
Of the Suburban Journals
South City Journal,South Side Journal
09/20/2006
Community outcry to restore Cleveland High School has presented a challenges for the St. Louis Public Schools, but it could now provide an opportunity.
The district is considering rehabilitating the closed school and using it as a school for students for other large high schools while air conditioning is installed in their buildings.
The district has used closed elementary schools as holding schools while air conditioning was installed in elementary and middle schools in the district. However, the district does not have a building other than Cleveland that would be large enough to suit the needs of the district's large high schools, including Roosevelt and Beaumont.
Deanna Anderson, interim assistant superintendent for operations, said there is a good possibility Cleveland would be rehabilitated for that purpose. She said the district could then look at its needs to determine a curriculum for Cleveland High School that would keep it operating as a viable part of the district's future.Advertisement
Anderson has set up a meeting for 6 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 28, at the Cleveland High School auditorium, 4352 Louisiana Ave., to meet with the community around the Dutchtown area, where the school is located. She said this town hall meeting would be a session where they could discuss using Cleveland as a holding school.
"In order to do this, we can't do it alone. There was such an interest from the community in helping to restore that school that I felt it was something we can't ignore," Anderson said. "This would be a pilot partnership program for re-birthing the school."
John Chen of the Alliance to Save Cleveland High said the district's administration had been busy with the start of the school year, but now both Anderson and Superintendent Diana Bourisaw have both met with the alliance. He said the idea of using Cleveland as a holding school was mentioned during those meetings.
"We made major progress," Chen said. "The alliance's purpose is completely in sync with the administration. Our goal is to return students to Cleveland. Our goal is the continued use of this building as a school.
"The community and the administration are on the same page. That's great. Now we need to get to the details."
The district's former chief operating officer, Gary Hughey, said last spring that Cleveland needed an investment of $20 million to make it usable as a high school. Hughey, who left the district after former superintendent Creg Williams resigned, said this was because of years of deferred maintenance. He listed the need to repair the roof, tuckpoint exterior walls and fix leaks in the foundation among Cleveland's issues. However, almost half of the $20 million would be used to install air conditioning in the school.
The school board voted over the summer to move the district's Naval Junior ROTC high school program from the Cleveland building to Pruitt School.
Anderson said the district already has money budgeted to install air conditioning at Cleveland. The money would come from a bond issue approved by voters to pay to air condition schools.
Anderson said the money would pay to repair areas of the building that are affected by the project, including areas of classrooms where ductwork and wiring must be installed. However, she said it could not be used for work not related to the air conditioning project.
"We have brickwork that needs tuckpointing, flashing that needs replaced, windows that are single-pane. Those need to be addressed as well. That's why I'm talking about a partnership to look at the entire school," Anderson said.
The partnership could include raising funds, Anderson said, but it likely would include more.
"We need to get as many people as we can involved," she said.
Chen said the community around Cleveland High School is ready to start at any time. He said they want to have an open dialogue with the administration.
"They need community help. They can't do it alone," Chen said.
Anderson said the district's population of high school students is enough to merit having another high school once Cleveland is back in shape. If it is used temporarily as a holding school, it could later be used as a high school in its own right.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 2:02:00 PM
This is going to be very interesting?
Tuesday, September 26, 2006 9:02:00 PM
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