IPS demolition vs. rehabilitation
by Kurt Meyer
As if Indianapolis Public Schools didn"t already have enough detractors, last year they enraged a broad cross-section of the city"s neighborhoods by announcing plans to demolish 11 historic neighborhood schools, two of which are on the National Register of Historic Places.
According to Suzanne Rollins Stanis of HLFI, "My biggest issue was that they took that vote to replace those schools and many of the principals didn"t even know until we told them."
This came as a shock to Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, which helped spur the creation of a task force to look into the building replacement issue. There were others besides HLFI left in the dark by the school board"s vote. According to Suzanne Rollins Stanis of HLFI, "My biggest issue was that they took that vote to replace those schools and many of the principals didn"t even know until we told them." Opposition to the IPS demolition plans came quickly for three schools with strong community support. They were Irvington"s School 57, Meridian Kessler"s School 84 and Christian Park"s School 82. With that in mind, Stanis and HLFI decided to do a study in a neighborhood not likely to save its school on its own. They hired the architectural firm BauerLatoza of Gary, Ind., to review IPS" plans for Brookside Elementary School 54. "The big landmarks, like Shortridge and Tech, are safe," Stanis says, "but the less significant ones have value, too. [School] 54 plays a large part in that area of 10th Street. The new schools are often built on a suburban model and are completely out of context with their surroundings. These things seem unimportant when you"re talking about children"s education, but it all plays a part in how the neighborhood feels." BauerLatoza, which has done ample work designing renovations for the Chicago school system, found that saving and rehabbing school 54 would actually save IPS $2 million over the demo and rebuild plan drawn up by the school system"s architects, Schmidt & Associates. The Schmidt plan would require the demolition of a half block of houses and a historic church, the former First German Reformed Church. Now known as the Neighborhood Fellowship church, it is the social center and saving grace of the troubled neighborhood surrounding the school. The BauerLatoza plan would not only save the school, but the church, too. As Stanis pointed out, the Schmidt plan would impose a suburban design on the urban landscape. While the existing school sits up on the street, the new school would be moved to the back of the block and the foreground and streetscape would be filled with a parking lot, ý la strip mall and industrial park. Still, Stanis doesn"t blame Schmidt. "I don"t want to fault the architects. They take their lead from school boards. When school systems want to save schools, they make it work, but they have to be creative. If the school board is pushing toward new buildings Ö well, the architect"s role is to please their clients." Though HLFI"s study shows IPS could save $2 million by renovating the buildings, Stanis admits that the BauerLatoza plan doesn"t provide the exact same school facility as the IPS plan designed by Schmidt. "The reality is that we cannot totally compare apples with apples. Parking deficiencies are an issue. Furthermore, IPS wants every school to accommodate 600 kids, though 54 currently holds 350. Our design will accommodate 600 students, but is missing a second art room, part of the IPS wish list." Schmidt and IPS have offered a number of other reasons why the building can"t be saved, chief among those being that the old school doesn"t meet building codes, one of which requires K through second grade students to be on one level. Stanis counters. "To begin with, the building was there before codes came into effect, so it"s grandfathered in. Secondly, the International Building Code to be adopted this March will recommend an end to that requirement." When Stanis pointed this out to Schmidt, they refused to take a second look. The community will get a chance for a second look this Saturday, Jan. 25 at Brookside Family Center from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. The meeting is being sponsored by NESCO, the North Eastside Community Organization. The Family Center is at 3500 Brookside Parkway South Drive. Architects for both IPS and HLFI will make presentations and time will be allowed for public comment. What Stanis thinks will be revealed at the NESCO meeting is IPS" flawed view. Her voice grows passionate as she pokes an architect"s drawing with her finger. "The problem is that new schools are seen as the answer to social problems. But the new building with all the bells and whistles is not going to make ISTEP scores go through the roof. Continuity and tradition are some of the few constants in these neighborhoods. These kids deserve every opportunity that suburban schools offer. But a building won"t fix education."
