By Travis Reems
Filed Monday, October 2 at 11:00 PM
Last Thursday, district officials met with the community in a townhall meeting to discuss the future of Cleveland Highschool. This past summer, the school was temporarily closed due to health concerns, and the Junior Naval ROTC program housed at Cleveland was moved to Pruitt Middle School, which at the time housed a middle school ROTC program that has since been disbanded to make space for the highschool students.
The district's Deana Anderson, Building Commissioner and Interim Assistant Superintendent for Operations, along with a staff of three from her office explained to those in attendance the processes for determining the long-term needs of the structure and then setting about to make repairs. After the district's presentation, questions were fielded, not by the district staff, but by members of the Steering Committee for the Alliance to Save Cleveland High, a Missouri non-profit corporation whose goal it is to work with the district to pursue avenues for preserving the historic structure as a functioning school in the community. The Steering Committee members answering questions included Alderwoman Dorothy Kirner, Alderman Craig Schmid, local businessman John Chen, Dutchtown South Community Corporation Executive Director Debbie Irwin, neighborhood resident Dr. Elaine Mahood, Landmark's Association member Matt Ghio, and community advocate Travis Reems.
After the district's staff had yielded the floor to the Alliance's members, hostility was expressed by the attendees toward rumored potential uses of the structure as a holding facility for students while their home schools are outfitted with airconditioning. The comments by cadets of the Cleveland at Pruitt NJROTC program, and their parents, were focused on the inequity of facilities they had been given at Pruitt, while students from other highschools in the district might be using their school.
Even with the somewhat hostile environment, the Alliance was able to raise from those in attendance nearly $300 to cover operating costs of the group. $2 of which came from cadets, the rest was from parents, current and former teachers, and other concerned neighborhood residents.
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Disclosure: Travis Reems is a member of the Alliance to Save Cleveland High and its Steering Committee.
7 Comments:
Cadets muster for effort to save The Castle
Shawn Clubb
Of the Suburban Journals
South City Journal,South Side Journal
10/04/2006
The cadets of the St. Louis Public Schools Naval Junior ROTC program feel as if they've drawn a hardship tour.
Many of the seniors in the program were shipped off to Pruitt School before the start of the school year, but they long for their home port — Cleveland High School.
Several seniors turned out last week for a presentation in Cleveland's auditorium at 4352 Louisiana Ave. Deanna Anderson, interim assistant superintendent for operations, told them and others in the crowd the administration wants to restore Cleveland, but it needs community support.
The school board voted over the summer to remove students from Cleveland because of years of deferred maintenance that has left the building in poor condition.
Anderson said one option for Cleveland would be to house students from other high schools there while their buildings were having air conditioning installed.
Matt Ghio, a member of the Alliance to Save Cleveland High, said the cadets need a voice in the process. He said using Cleveland as a holding school would not enable them to return to the building before graduation.
"We don't like Pruitt," shouted one student.
"This is not Beaumont. This is not Roosevelt School. It's our home," Cadet Christopher Smith said.
Smith said Pruitt is not fit to be a high school.
The administration's presentation was strictly informational; Anderson did not take questions. Ghio and the other alliance members opened the floor to questions and comments after Anderson and Brian Hutchinson, the district's director of construction bond projects, had finished their presentation.
Sue Moynihan, of the Bevo Mill neighborhood, said she doesn't believe people would support the Cleveland effort, if the building were then used as a holding school. She said it should be for the cadets.
John Chen, an Alliance member, asked everyone to keep things positive. He said the community and the district must work together.
Anderson said the district wants to restore Cleveland.
Hutchinson said $9.4 million has been budgeted to install air conditioning in Cleveland. He said bond money for air conditioning could only be used for related work.
"We will try to get the biggest bang for the buck with the bond," Hutchinson said. "We will try to do the most disturbance so the bond can take care of a lot of it."
However, there would still be a gap between the amount of work the bond money would cover and the estimated $20 million total cost of restoring the building.
The building must have mold, lead and asbestos removed. Anderson said it also needs roof work, painting, rewiring and replacement of single-paned windows. She said a community effort is needed and there should be partnerships, including donated labor. She gave Habitat for Humanity as an example.
"Why can't we have Painter for Pupils or Carpenters for Classrooms," she asked.
Ghio said two architects and two construction estimators have volunteered to go through the building with him within the next two weeks. He said they would provide an independent estimate of what the building needs.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 9:48:00 AM
It's great that people are coming together and trying to get this thing to work but I'm not to optimistic with the "painters for pupils" idea considering the level of professionalism of the so called painting contractors that SLPS/Sodexho has hired for their recent summer work. The real industry professionals with real industry affiliations are the ones that would normally be there to help out in times like this but SLPS/Sodexho has proven time and time again that they have very little use for an industry professionial.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006 3:19:00 PM
again i ask why can't the Navy chip in for some of these repairs you don't see anyone scaping for money at Annapolis. these young people have made a desicion to serve their contry at a very early age i don't know the numbers but some of them eventualy go into the navy right so shouldn't they help train their students? Also what possible good did it do to actually report the cadets chipping in 2 dollors i found that unnessary,do people expect kids to chip in for a system that has only failded them in the past?
Thursday, October 05, 2006 5:56:00 AM
Well, something failed you, but I thought it was your attention to your English teachers.
Friday, October 06, 2006 7:58:00 PM
The reason I included the information about the 2 cadets that each contributed a dollar was to share the heart-warming feeling I got from seeing these cadets care enough about returning to their school to not only show-up to what was likely, for them, a boring adult meeting, but also to personally, financially contribute to the restoration effort. I admit that it was a bit of sentimentality on my part to have included that information, but I wanted the STLSchools.com readers to know that the cadets care THAT much about their school.
As for the Navy's ability to contribute to the cause, that is being investigated, but as the program is so loosely connected with the Navy, which already picks-up the operating cost of the materials used in the naval portion of the program, I am personally unsure of how far we will get.
Saturday, October 07, 2006 12:43:00 AM
My english teacher did not fail me or mabey she did it was your mama! I feel very strongly about the cleveland situation and was in a big hurry to ask the questions i did. When we are graded on our grammer or our spelling in a blog! let me know otherwise shut up or stick to the subject anonymous! thank you travis for clearing that up your right now that i think about it that was a touching gesture you rock thats why they hired you! Brenda DeClue
Saturday, October 07, 2006 4:43:00 PM
Pruitt Military Academy should be reopened as a middle school. It was a good school and had a good military system. It gave the students something that the other middle schools in the SLPS could not provide; DISCIPLINE! The students at PMA were proud of PMA and it showed. MAP scores were actually on the rise at PMA as compared to the other middle schools in the district. Why was PMA dissolved? Greg Williams is gone now. We should correct his mistake and bring PMA back!
Monday, October 30, 2006 11:27:00 AM
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