[Vision2020] school facilities discussion

[Joan Opyr]

Dear Visionaries:

This morning, on my way out to feed my border collie, Fergus, I stepped 
in an enormous pile of dog doo.  I stepped in it with my right boot, 
and even though I managed to get most of the poop off, it still stinks. 
  The left boot escaped damage but I feel . . . lop-sided.  Good thing, 
then, that Area Man Dan has presented me with the opportunity to step 
in another pile with that other foot.  In other words (squish!) I agree 
with Dan.  We need a new elementary school.

Stop yelling!  I know that Russell is a beautiful building, and I 
believe strongly in preserving Moscow's historic heritage.  I don't 
believe, however, that it makes either economic or educational sense to 
renovate Russell or West Park.  Why not?  Because the cost of making 
Russell ADA-accessible; of bringing it up to snuff electrically; and of 
giving the kids a decent playground is prohibitive.  It will cost far 
more to renovate Russell and West Park than it would to simply face the 
fact that school facilities have a limited lifespan.  The high school 
was built in 1938; it's shot to hell.  I like that it's located 
downtown -- I do -- but the cafeteria only seats 90 kids, the science 
labs are a joke, the music room used to be the shop room, and the whole 
structure is inadequate and well past its prime.  I'm not suggesting a 
la Pat Kraut that we raze all of these buildings and make remote 
parking lots for New St. Andrews -- I'm suggesting that we consider 
constructing a new elementary school, a new high school, and a new 
building for Paradise Creek Regional High School, AKA the alternative 
school.

[An aside: it nauseates me to hear would-be liberals dismissing the 
students of the Paradise Creek Regional High School as "throw-aways."  
Those students are not disposable; they matter; they are important.  We 
owe them exactly the same stellar service we happily provide those 
students who are lucky enough to  attend "beautiful" and "historic" 
schools like Russell.  Not only will I not support a school bond that 
fails to take the alternative school into account -- I will actively 
campaign against it.  The snotty, short-sighted, illiberal elitism I 
hear expressed around town and at Moscow School Board meetings used to 
make me sick to my stomach; now it just makes me angry and, like the 
Hulk, I'm not pleasant when I'm angry.  We as a community need to get a 
grip on what's more important: the students or the buildings.  
Listening to some of the more ardent Russell-as-a-building lovers, I 
find to my horror that their sympathies seem to lie with the bricks and 
the mortar rather than with the children in attendance.]

I don't want to rob Carl or Dan or my own in-laws of their happy 
Russell memories.  I also think that we missed our chance to restore 
that building as a school when the last bond levy failed.  Costs have 
not gone down in the year or so since; they've gone up.  So, too, have 
interest rates.  We should find a way to save Russell-the-building, but 
I see no sense in pouring money into Russell-the-school.  We need a new 
elementary school, preferably on the Joseph Street property.

There now.  The doo-doo is on both feet.  I'll scrape it off as best I 
can, sit back, and wait for the rotten ether-tomatoes.

Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment
www.joanopyr.com

On Mar 28, 2006, at 12:32 PM, Area Man wrote:

> My alma mater too, Carl.  We even walked up Dead Man's Hill every day,
> except when it got real snotty we'd head over to Jefferson.  I even 
> lost
> part of a front tooth on the asphalt hill.
>
> I figure that sometimes we just gotta let go . . . The world is
> changing.  Time for the hard choices.
>
> DC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
> [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Carl Westberg
> Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 12:17 PM
> To: vision2020 at moscow.com
> Subject: RE: [Vision2020] school facilities discussion
>
>
> "Sell off West Park and Russell".  Close my alma mater, Russell School,
> where I was undisputed tetherball champion circa 1959?  Where, on the
> steps leading down to First Street on the way to the public library, I
> realized, at the age of 10, that I was madly in love with....whoever 
> she was?  Say
> it ain't so, Dan.
>
> Carl Westberg Jr.
>
>
>> From: "Area Man" <areaman at moscow.com>
>> To: <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>> Subject: [Vision2020] school facilities discussion
>> Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 11:50:05 -0800
>>
>> Maybe I've missed it in all the posts about elections and super
>> wal-marts and various other topics, but I haven't seen much discussion
>> on the Vizzz regarding school facilities (this time around).
>>
>> I'll get the ball rolling (love it or hate it) --
>>
>> Sell off West Park and Russell, build a new elementary school at the
>> Joseph Street property, send those kids there.
>>
>> Some things that *might* happen in this process:
>> - the U of I purchases the West Park property
>> - *someone* buys the Russell property and builds the high-rise condos
>> that some citizens told the New Cities people we wanted, maybe even
>> using the old school for part of that.
>> - that makes some money for the SD to build the new school with (not
>> all of it, of course).
>>
>> Issues?
>> - Kids that walk to Russell will have to hoof it to McDonald or Lena,
>> or take a bus (not really a problem with West Park, since I think most
>> all the kids ride buses there already).
>> - all the schools even farther over on the east side of Moscow.  It
>> would be nice to have one at each corner of town, but I don't see that
>> happening.
>>
>> This still doesn't fix the problems with the High School, but that's
>> for another time.  Baby steps . . .
>>
>> As Tom Hansen would say, "Thoughts?"
>>
>> DC