[Vision2020] school facilities discussion

Tue Mar 28 15:03:58 PST 2006

Your description of the high school sound almost like a description of me and we are the age.

Roger
-----Original message-----
From: Joan Opyr joanopyr at moscow.com
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 15:42:39 -0800
To: "Area Man" areaman at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] school facilities discussion

> 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
> 
> 
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