School Closings

[Olddetroiter]

Who attended any of the schools on the latest school closings list?

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090...chool+upgrades

I went to Columbus, 2nd - 8th grades.

[Danny]

Pitiful! It seems that those EVIL Charter Schools are winning while DPS suffers. If this continues DPS will be downgraded to just a handful of schools that would be further away from any Detroit ghettohoods. Parents would be so upset that they would send a grape throwing woman to the school board meeting.

[rjlj]

This is great news. 23 new buildings for the suburban unrban explorers to trash and drink their 40's in. Just think of the flickr cred you can get with this. Not to mention, all the metal available for the scrappers.

[digitalvision]

It's doesn't have to be that way... if the district under the new management [[I applaud the reality check going on here) moves quicky and sells the parcels with development [[after all, these parcels are larger and could be of enough size for developers to do something) then they won't sit and rot. The reason the schools did before is because of the completely inept management. Or, conversely, as I've seen in other cities, keep the old building and turn it into lofts or something.

Not that I expect DPS to exist as it does in 5 years. The exodus of students is staggering, and Detroit will be [[I would almost argue already is) a De Facto charter system due to the votes of parent's feet [[just look at the drop in enrollment in the last few years). In some ways, if the kids are going to charter schools, at least their tax dollars aren't completely leaving the city.

DPS, due to various economic factors, is learning the lesson it needs to learn. Both the city of Detroit and DPS need to realize that resources are finite, you can't keep kicking tough decisions down the road, and that the city's main focus can't be a provider of jobs but must as a provider of services.

Unfortunately, there's some good folks, like teachers, who are going to take a big hit on this. But that's the reality of the economics. Tens of thousands of less students = less teachers needed.

[Rocko]

A sad day all around, for education, for children, for Detroit, for architecture.

I'm thinking about doing some documentary photography of some of the schools which will now be closing.... I see the list of schools which will be closing, but I'm not familiar with most of them. Anyone know which ones are especially old and feature interesting architecture? I hope to make the photos available to the Detroit Historical Museum or something so they can be used for future reference and research. Any help is appreciated!

[English]

I went to Courtis Elementary for kindergarten. Both of my sisters also attended Courtis, as did my youngest aunt and uncle. It was our neighborhood school. It was also my precinct polling place, and the first place where I voted.

They were slated to close during the last round a few years ago, but the community and staff rallied to save it. Guess that didn't work this time.

I heard the same thing about Chadsey... staff and community lobbied to keep it open. In the end, it only gave them a few more years.

This is so very sad.

[firstandten]

Durfee is another school slated to go. It used to be you could go from K-12 in three different schools just a few yards from each other. Now only Central is left and given the shape of the area around there I wonder how much longer that school will be around.

[DetroitDad]

This is getting heavy national attention. From CNN; http://topics.cnn.com/topics/detroit:

More than 20 of Detroit, Michigan's public schools may close and 600 teachers will be laid off in an attempt to reduce a projected $303 million deficit, the state-appointed financial manager of the schools said Thursday...

A video is also available on CNN.com.

[Olddetroiter]

Anyone know which ones are especially old and feature interesting architecture?

My guess is most [[maybe all?) of them are 'especially old'. The center portion and one wing of Columbus were constructed in 1929-30. The other wing was added in the early '50's. IMHO all the old schools have interesting architecture, but that's just my opinion.... Best wishes for your photo project.

[Khartoum]

This is great news. 23 new buildings for the suburban unrban explorers to trash and drink their 40's in. Just think of the flickr cred you can get with this. Not to mention, all the metal available for the scrappers.

Phew! They were probably worried...with the 1/2 tearing down of McMillan, they were down to what...49 and a 1/2 schools left to drink 40's in?

It's a good thing they're back over 50. Under 50 is unacceptable.

[noenaim]

The DPS web site is now offering old schools properties for sale
you can buy the old Cass Tech for 14million

http://www.detroit.k12.mi.us/admin/b...fm/properties/

[diver1369]

I attended Pitcher Elementary at Pembroke/Stahelin in northwest Detroit. It was closed three years ago. A group of former students went on a tour of the school the month before it closed. When we went there in the 60s, attendance was over 700. It was half that the day of our tour and only the ground floor classrooms were being used. The staff and students were friendly and obliging and the school was in excellent condition. It was a bittersweet experience.

[iheartthed]

The exodus of students is staggering, and Detroit will be [[I would almost argue already is) a De Facto charter system due to the votes of parent's feet [[just look at the drop in enrollment in the last few years). In some ways, if the kids are going to charter schools, at least their tax dollars aren't completely leaving the city.

I'm not so sure that this is entirely parents voting with their feet. I think a bit of it is self-fulfilling prophecy. A lot of neighborhoods have been left with no local school, so the only alternative is to send the kids to charter schools. And the curriculum that I have seen in some of these charter schools is worse than what it was in the public schools.

I don't think the state can mandate curriculum guidelines of the charter schools like they could with public schools. Thus, for instance, there was a state requirement that all high schoolers take four years of English in order to graduate, but I don't think that is enforceable in charter schools. So kids are graduating nowadays with even more vast differences in preparation than they were before charter schools became prevalent.

This impending problem hasn't been spoken about so much in the mainstream discussion, but I expect it to get more attention in the coming years as the first rounds of charter school graduates move into college and beyond.

[daddeeo]

It's kind of funny to hear parents talk about having their kids go to a school away from their neighborhood. Back in the 60's, people started moving out of Detroit because of talk of busing their kids to schools out of their neighborhood.

[LodgeDodger]

Gabriel Richard School.

My father and his siblings attended Barbour School.

[vetalalumni]

My older brothers attended Mark Twain elementary. Later, my brothers and I attended the previously closed Redford High School. Thankfully my elementary school Vetal is not on the closure list.

[reddog289]

Some how I ended up on YouTube, I hear they plan to close Guyton Elementry. There are some videos from there on youtube.Looks like a college building not a elementry school.

[DetroitTeacher]

I just hope they send the supplies and such from the closed schools to those that are still open. I'm sure that, just like the last time, teachers would volunteer to go pick the stuff up and take it to their school. It breaks my heart to see all of the books [[library and text), paper, desks, computers, and other supplies just rotting away while schools still in operation don't have enough books to provide to the kids!

[Dave70]

Any of you see this article in Vice Magazine?

School's Out Forever parts 1-12 by JAMES GRIFFIOEN

http://www.viceland.com/int/v16n2/ht....php?source=mp

Twelve sad photos.