I think they are legit in their intentions. They are searching for every bit of parking they can find for their employees, and they'll get what they can take. They'd have gotten the school across the street if they could have. I just wish they'd find a better solution. If they need another garage, they need another garage. But, they shouldn't be allowed to have surface lots all over the district. I'm sure they are just licking their lips in waiting to get their hands on Eastern. I'm pissed off beyod measure that the LSD seems to have it in for Eastern (and to a lesser extent, Sexton). If it were up to the LSD, this city of 114,000 would have one conventional high school.
What school are you talking about them wanting to get?
I still want to believe that even if they do close Eastern people won't let it be tore down by Sparrow or anyone else. I have very little faith in the LSD in general though, I really don't understand a lot of their actions. I haven't followed things close lately, but it seems as though they've made major changes every few years or less since I was in high school. When I was at Everett they experimented with closed campus lunch for one year and trimesters for one year. I don't remember what all's come and gone since, but this recent thing with putting 7th through 12th graders on the same campus is beyond idiotic. It seems like there's been no stability for anyone involved and it's getting old. As sort of a side note, I've always had the feeling that the LSD has had far more than it's fair share of backroom deals, nepotism and other crookedness going on.
Yeah, I kind of went off on a rant about LSD, but they've been so rudderless. Because of the performance of the district for quite awhile now, and No Child Left Behind, they are federally to come up with a plan to address the issues with the district. They are given quite a bit of flexibility as to how to go about this, and maybe too much. On top of this is just the everyday local plan as to what to do with the school district that happens every year, and they seem to only be concerned with continuing to cut costs at all costs.
There seems to be this working idea that they have in the background to basically and eventually spin off both Eastern and Sexton (Eastern first). They are very careful not to do this because it would (rightfully) upset and piss off parents. I'm totally against it because it would be an embarrassment for a city this size (both physically and population-wise) to have one "traditional" (9-12) high school (Everett). They'd turn Pattengill into a 7-12 to replace Eastern, and it'd basically serve the entire area of the city north of the rivers. I just don't get it. While enrollment has continued to decline, it's been less of a decline than in other similar-sized cities in the state. If continually closing schools would help the bottom line, Lansing should be running a surplus, now. It's not the buildings.
The good thing about Eastern, though, is that there is this background community group which I think has been helped by Preservation Lansing keeping a watch on LSD in the event that they do try and close and sell off the school. But, advocacy groups, alone, can't protect a building. We've seen that too many times before. I think I've heard Gillespie might be interested in the building. But, until the LSD just comes out honestly with their intentions, publically, we're in a holding pattern. I'd like to see Eastern kept as a school. It's really a victim of what the LSD makes it, though. Very rarely do they mention it does so poor academically because it's basically a dumping ground for all of the districts immigrant refugee populations. These are often kids from war-torn countries where they haven't regularly been in school to begin with, and who barely speak English or don't speak it at all. So, of course, it's going to perform pretty poorly academically.
GM formally announced its plan for its 225,000 square foot, $174 million stamping plant at Lansing Grand River Assembly, this morning. They'd already kind of implied this when they requested incentives from the city back in April, but this makes it official. I'm still interested to see where this structure will go in relation to the logistics warehouse under construction, and how much land this leaves left on the old LCA site to be redeveloped.
I've been wondering where the stamping plant will go also. I had seen them doing concrete work just to the east of MLK, so I had assumed it was going there, but that looks like it was just to expand the parking lot. A few days a go I thought I noticed utility flags and markings in the area between north and southbound MLK, so maybe there. It would make since they may rather keep the land east of MLK open for expansion of the production line or something else.
I have heard from very good sources that Sparrow wants the Eastern HS property (maybe plans for it...) I think it is very likely that it will happen, and it would mean a lot of money for LSD (perhaps an unfortunate choice of words there).
I'm torn. I did my student teaching at Eastern. I love the old building; it has so much character. But, it is expensive to maintain, and an investment in the Pattengill campus would mean newer, high tech facilities. Also, I wonder if they would just dissolve Eastern to avoid a state takeover (which is a farce, the state takeover), and reopen at Pattengill under a different name. I don't know how that works.
The east side needs to have a high school- especially given that the east side has the most potential for growth. A strong local HS is necessary for this growth.
There's never been much doubt that Sparrow wants Eastern and if it goes up for sale I'm certain they'll jump on it. I'd like to see Eastern remain a high school, but I'm mainly concerned with the building being saved along with the field house. That still leaves plenty of land for Sparrow to build on.
You'd think any developer would want to save it, but I don't rely on the kindness of strangers when it comes to historic buildings. I've watched enough verbal promises made and be broken when it comes to preservation in Michigan. Eastern is a large property and would require extensive renovation work, which worries me as this would work directly against reuse of the building.
J, it's not much of a secret. The City Pulse did a pretty big story on the possibilities for Eastern a few months ago. The school board has basically been shopping around the property behind the scenes.
EDIT: Speak of the devil, but the LSJ included a rough site plan for Lansing Grand River Assembly showing the two new buildings. Looks like both the logistics center and stamping plant are being built behind the main plant and the western side of the site is being left for the shipping lot:
I think that is a few years away, though (and may require the high speed bus system and some prior investment in the neighborhood directly to the west of Eastern). I don't know if the LSD has that kind of time. The most important factors for the district are probably:
A) Getting the state off their back.
B) Stopping parents on the east side from sending their kids out of district (that may be essential for (A) to happen).
C) Cutting maintenance costs. This is their talking point but would be much less important if (B) were to happen and they had more money in the first place.
The stamping plant is kind of an odd shape, it's good to know where to expect to see it at though.
I'd hate to see any vertical additions to Eastern, but I would love to see apartments made out of it. I think it's actually a pretty feasible project, a developer could also take on turning the field house into a performance venue or whatever else.
The LSD's problems are mostly out of its control, but their reactions/solutions to those problems have been pretty bad. No Child Left Behind sucks, but education in general was broken before that. I don't know what the solutions are, but education as whole needs to be completely rethought from the ground up for things to truly get better anywhere. Besides that, the LSD is going to have to come up with better solutions than it has to cope with NCLB, schools of choice, aging buildings, poor parenting and pointless state and federal standards.
Comments
I still want to believe that even if they do close Eastern people won't let it be tore down by Sparrow or anyone else. I have very little faith in the LSD in general though, I really don't understand a lot of their actions. I haven't followed things close lately, but it seems as though they've made major changes every few years or less since I was in high school. When I was at Everett they experimented with closed campus lunch for one year and trimesters for one year. I don't remember what all's come and gone since, but this recent thing with putting 7th through 12th graders on the same campus is beyond idiotic. It seems like there's been no stability for anyone involved and it's getting old. As sort of a side note, I've always had the feeling that the LSD has had far more than it's fair share of backroom deals, nepotism and other crookedness going on.
Yeah, I kind of went off on a rant about LSD, but they've been so rudderless. Because of the performance of the district for quite awhile now, and No Child Left Behind, they are federally to come up with a plan to address the issues with the district. They are given quite a bit of flexibility as to how to go about this, and maybe too much. On top of this is just the everyday local plan as to what to do with the school district that happens every year, and they seem to only be concerned with continuing to cut costs at all costs.
There seems to be this working idea that they have in the background to basically and eventually spin off both Eastern and Sexton (Eastern first). They are very careful not to do this because it would (rightfully) upset and piss off parents. I'm totally against it because it would be an embarrassment for a city this size (both physically and population-wise) to have one "traditional" (9-12) high school (Everett). They'd turn Pattengill into a 7-12 to replace Eastern, and it'd basically serve the entire area of the city north of the rivers. I just don't get it. While enrollment has continued to decline, it's been less of a decline than in other similar-sized cities in the state. If continually closing schools would help the bottom line, Lansing should be running a surplus, now. It's not the buildings.
The good thing about Eastern, though, is that there is this background community group which I think has been helped by Preservation Lansing keeping a watch on LSD in the event that they do try and close and sell off the school. But, advocacy groups, alone, can't protect a building. We've seen that too many times before. I think I've heard Gillespie might be interested in the building. But, until the LSD just comes out honestly with their intentions, publically, we're in a holding pattern. I'd like to see Eastern kept as a school. It's really a victim of what the LSD makes it, though. Very rarely do they mention it does so poor academically because it's basically a dumping ground for all of the districts immigrant refugee populations. These are often kids from war-torn countries where they haven't regularly been in school to begin with, and who barely speak English or don't speak it at all. So, of course, it's going to perform pretty poorly academically.
I've been wondering where the stamping plant will go also. I had seen them doing concrete work just to the east of MLK, so I had assumed it was going there, but that looks like it was just to expand the parking lot. A few days a go I thought I noticed utility flags and markings in the area between north and southbound MLK, so maybe there. It would make since they may rather keep the land east of MLK open for expansion of the production line or something else.
I'm torn. I did my student teaching at Eastern. I love the old building; it has so much character. But, it is expensive to maintain, and an investment in the Pattengill campus would mean newer, high tech facilities. Also, I wonder if they would just dissolve Eastern to avoid a state takeover (which is a farce, the state takeover), and reopen at Pattengill under a different name. I don't know how that works.
The east side needs to have a high school- especially given that the east side has the most potential for growth. A strong local HS is necessary for this growth.
J, it's not much of a secret. The City Pulse did a pretty big story on the possibilities for Eastern a few months ago. The school board has basically been shopping around the property behind the scenes.
EDIT: Speak of the devil, but the LSJ included a rough site plan for Lansing Grand River Assembly showing the two new buildings. Looks like both the logistics center and stamping plant are being built behind the main plant and the western side of the site is being left for the shipping lot:
http://www.unionsquaregr.com/
I think that is a few years away, though (and may require the high speed bus system and some prior investment in the neighborhood directly to the west of Eastern). I don't know if the LSD has that kind of time. The most important factors for the district are probably:
A) Getting the state off their back.
B) Stopping parents on the east side from sending their kids out of district (that may be essential for (A) to happen).
C) Cutting maintenance costs. This is their talking point but would be much less important if (B) were to happen and they had more money in the first place.
I'd hate to see any vertical additions to Eastern, but I would love to see apartments made out of it. I think it's actually a pretty feasible project, a developer could also take on turning the field house into a performance venue or whatever else.
The LSD's problems are mostly out of its control, but their reactions/solutions to those problems have been pretty bad. No Child Left Behind sucks, but education in general was broken before that. I don't know what the solutions are, but education as whole needs to be completely rethought from the ground up for things to truly get better anywhere. Besides that, the LSD is going to have to come up with better solutions than it has to cope with NCLB, schools of choice, aging buildings, poor parenting and pointless state and federal standards.