Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Why we fight for Schenley

Why we fight for Schenley Last fall, the superintendent's office stepped on a hornet's nest when it proposed the end of historic Schenley High School. While I won't address the achievement gap or renovation costs -- wonks on both sides have debated these to death -- I'd like to explain, or try to, the zealotry with which we're dealing.
Schenley is a blended school community. Schenley should not be flushed down the toilet, and lost for the future of this city, because some fibers are buried in some of the walls.

The killer: Roosevelt's reform says deform what isn't broken.

Read the editorial.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This editorial is very nicely done. I am glad that Schenley has such devoted alums. My husband (1976)and son (2008) graduated from Allderdice and I dont think they have such warm and fuzzy memories of it.

Anonymous said...

John K: You lost, Pittsburgh City Schools save money.

Anonymous said...

Guess you didn't listen to the whole thing, eh? There's plenty of money being spent (like an extra $5M to put Sci-Tech in the Frick building -- 14M -- rather than in Westinghouse estimated at 10 M -- and probably less if they thought more creatively how to use that renovated building.

There's plenty more being spent under the radar, too. See, the 70+M figure for a brand spanking beautiful renovation is great cover for spending lots and lots of money here and there, month by month on all sorts of smaller schools in separate buildings. Not a moneysaver in the end, I think we'll see.

Anonymous said...

John K. says: This is Pittsburgh. Efficiency and sound financial planning takes 2nd place to where you graduated from high school. Sad to think you would bankrupt a public school system just to preserve some memory.

Anonymous said...

seems as if theres always some group complaining about something in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.....we dont want higher taxes...but we dont want to consolidate and close buildings. We want OTHER kids to relocate, I guess, but not our precious Schenley kids. Wait till they mess with Allderdice.....all the movers and shakers will come out of the woodwork then, wont they? Oh wait, Allderdice is a mess already, isnt it???? They have gone thru 4 principals in 4 years.....