By Antonio D. French
Filed Monday, April 3 at 11:11 AM
On Tuesday, April 4, vote for parents PETER DOWNS and DONNA JONES for St. Louis City School Board.
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6 Comments:
Standing in front of a closed school, Downs' reactionary message couldn't be clearer. A vote for Downs (and Jones) is a vote to reverse past board decisions. A return to the past, indeed.
12:16 PM, April 03, 2006
It's sad that rich people can close schools in poor neighborhoods and further disrupt the community and and expect those people NOT to react!
I will be voting for Donna Jones and Peter Downs tomorrow and so will my family and neighbors.
12:45 PM, April 03, 2006
It's especially sad that common folks living in every neighborhood can't see beyond a closed building or a teacher's paycheck.
Because tomorrow is a vote for the children in our schools (not their facilities or staff), I will be voting for Clinkscale and Buford. And any of my friends and neighbors not tied to the teachers' union or a particular closed school will be doing the same.
12:55 PM, April 03, 2006
Anony #3, please don't dismiss the feelings of the thousands of people who have been harmed by the disproportionate closing of these schools.
Most of these people (like myself) don't work for the district or get any money from the unions. What they know and have seen with their own eyes is institution after institution abandoning their communities in the name of "saving" someone elses.
In many of these neighborhoods, all that was left were the school and the church. Without those anchors, communities have fallen apart.
Whether you agree with their political choices or not, please don't dismiss the pain that these communities have suffered.
1:10 PM, April 03, 2006
Anony #3: I am your neighbor, don't have ties to a union (what's with union-bashing in the race? does the Slayte have Wal-Mart values nowadays?), don't have kids....and I will be voting for Downs and Jones.
2:32 PM, April 03, 2006
I'm not happy about parish closings either. However, most closings were needed.
With the parish closings, some were a complete shock, like Holy Family, while others were a long time coming, like Holy Innocents. Similarly, I can imagine that a few good, strong schools that were crucial neighborhood anchors did get closed in Roberti's process, just as some strong, good churches were closed in Burke's.
However, you move on. In both cases of northside schools and southside parishes, the disproportionate closings were the result of a changing population. Though the northside should ideally have more neighborhood schools, and the southside ideally more neighborhood parishes, collectively we move on. You gather the pieces, and you don't vote with revenge in your heart.
And while us adults are attached to traditions, like a specific institution, children adapt, but they still need the means to learn. I have confidence that Williams will lift up our children via new traditions, and the current board majority will enable his new plans to succeed.
2:33 PM, April 03, 2006
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