There was a public hearing Friday on the building plans of the new Harrison School. I couldn’t stay for the whole hearing, but I did get a little video to share of the presentation by Dave Henebry of LZT Associates (architects):
By the way, if you’re wondering why everything looks yellow, it’s not because the camera wasn’t white balanced. It’s because everything really looked yellow in the gymnasium where this hearing was held. The hearing was attended by about 28 people, including several District 150 administrators, teachers, custodians, a couple of city employees, and city councilman Clyde Gulley.
District 150 Superintendent Ken Hinton gushed that this would be a “world class school” and that “people from all over the world will be coming” to see it. It will be patterned after the Valeska-Hinton Early Learning Center.
In addition to what he said in the video above, Henebry also stated that the building materials will be load-bearing masonry with brick veneer, and that the reason the school is set so far back from the street is for security purposes. There will also be no fence along Griswold to keep people out of the “park-like setting.” Hinton would like that area to be able to be used by the surrounding neighborhoods as a community center.
There’s a public hearing for the new Glen Oak School today at 1:00. The hearing will be held at 809 East Frye Avenue, in the current Glen Oak School building. As someone has already pointed out, these “hearings” are really just “show and tell” sessions. All decisions have been made, and nothing will be changed as a result of community input at this point. But if you’re just looking for information, stop by and see the show.
My security reservations about the plan still apply then–especially since there will be no fence and the whole neighborhood will be invited in. As least, Valeska has a fence. Another concern I have about the park-like setting: the district can’t afford to pay for its “indoor” custodians, so how can they pay for all this outdoor landscaping, etc., at Harrison and Glen Oak–and, I guess, at Manual since they have planted all the new trees and shrubs. Hinton is tauting another world reknowned District #150 school–imagine that. That reminds me of a bit of Manual humor. Farkhash’s stationery described Manual as “the best kept secret in town.” When we first made the NCLB watch list, one of our teachers equipped that “it isn’t a secret any more.”
Left by Sharon Crews on August 25th, 2008