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Saturday, March 20, 2010
Rebirth of Marshall School in Midtown
by VitoJSgromo, published on July 29, 2009 at 10:51PM
Storyline: Rebirth of Marshall School in Midtown
Community Tags: business culture education history marshall school People rudolph harold sacramento school
“Well you roll on roads over fresh green grass. For your lorry loads pumping petrol gas. And you make them long, and you make them tough. But they just go on and on, and it seems that you can’t get off…
Well you’ve cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air. But will you keep on building higher til there’s no more room up there? …
I know we’ve come a long way, Were changing day to day, But tell me, where do the children play?”
Cat Stevens
In the rush to make Sacramento a big city we seem to concentrate on the expanding bars, restaurants, basketball arena, high rises, and other superficial aspects of a big city. We forget that key components to a successful revitalized city are the children and good schools.
A major step to bringing good schools back to downtown occurred last Saturday at Old Marshall School at 28th and G Streets. The California Montessori Project, Capitol Campus, a public charter grade school, had a ceremonial march of over 250 students, parents and neighbors from their old leased space at Pioneer Congregational Church at 28th and L Streets to their new home at Historic Marshall School at 28th and G Streets.
Marshall School, built in 1903 and designed by Rudolph Harold, a locally prominent architect who designed City Hall, was used as a grade school until 1976. In the 1960s and 70s, the great exodus of families from the central city led to the conversion of Marshall School into an adult school. Gradually, as pioneer restoration people began to return to the central city in the 1980s with their families, changing attitudes about living in Midtown, Metro Square and other housing developments began to set the foundation for bringing the school back to Midtown.
On August 17, Old Marshall Adult School will be reborn again into a quality grade school, renamed to California Montessori Project, Capitol Campus at Historic Marshall. This historic moment is brought into perspective if we consider that the establishment of a public grade school in the central city is the first in 70 years.
Let’s take this opportunity in the economic recession to reestablish our priorities and make sure we make room for children in our city’s growth. If we ignore this critical element we will fail.
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It's worth noting that this is a charter school. All Central City historic neighborhoods north of Broadway - from Mid/Downtown to River Park and College Greens -- are still without a comprehensive public high school, since Sacramento High School was given to Kevin Johnson.
The trend in Sacramento is toward "small" schools, charters and privatization of education. The community values of the reopening of the Marshall School location, are also a reminder of the importance of public schools to neighborhoods.
Historically, the feeder high school for those Marshall school students would have been Sacramento High School, if it was still a public school.
You're right about closing Sacramento High School. That was the biggest mistake the SCUSD has ever made in the history of the district. They should learn from that huge mistake because it cost them hundreds, if not thousands of students. They leave the district when it comes time for high school. The middle schools for the central city, East Sac, River Park, Oak Park, and College Greens don't have a feeder high school like every other middle school in the district has. Students who have gone to school together their whole lives get scattered to about 13 different high schools because there isn't a home high school anymore. That, in my opinion, has seperated and segregated our communities and that is a shame. I don't like too many charters for this very reason. They focus only on very specialized populations or very specialized philosphies and that can be very limiting in more ways than one.
You make some good points about the broader community benefits of having children growing up and continuing through high school together.
The reopening of a historic school in a neighborhood that is fighting to maintain livability (under pressures from impacts of city-backed "entertainment zones") is a great step forward.
It's a step into the twilight zone to have many Sacramentans accept the glaring absence of their historic (2nd Oldest West of the Mississippi) high school and what THAT does to community-building.
As you say, the Sac High giveaway "has seperated and segregated our communities and that is a shame." It is a shame, in one of the most diverse cities anywhere.
For now, these children and this neighborhood have a new school. Here's to California Montessori Project, Capitol Campus at Historic Marshall! And here's to all the community-builders that made it a reality!
There are multiple layers to every scenario.