City's west side slated to get two new schools

All the city's pupils will be going to new schools, the board president said.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Although school construction-related activity has so far been focused on the east side of town, school officials reaffirmed their commitment to new schools for all city schoolchildren.
"It is every intention of this board to make this dream come true for every child in our city," Shari Harrell, a newly elected school board member, said at a town hall meeting Thursday on the city's southwest side.
"We want you to work for us, and not just for the east side," the Rev. Gerald Morgan, pastor of the Hoyt Street Flourishing Ministries Church of God in Christ on the city southwest side, told school officials.
"We're saying we're concerned, so open the door and let us come in, and let us work with you and help you in dialogue like we're doing tonight," the Rev. Mr. Morgan, who is also Warren-Trumbull County NAACP branch president, told school officials.
Mr. Morgan said the NAACP called the meeting at the Warren West Community Center to address concerns about fairness in new school site selection. "We don't want the west side to be neglected," he said.
"What we're looking at is a school on the southwest side and a school on the northwest side, and we're moving full-force with those plans. That's what we're budgeted for," Harrell said.
Potential sites
The board is considering Southwest Park and Jefferson Elementary School as potential sites for a new building for kindergarten through eighth grade on the city's southwest side, she said.
The board is considering McGuffey Elementary School and a site on Parkman Road next to Trumbull Plaza for a similar building on the city's northwest side, she said.
"The commitment of the board prior to my even joining it was that we would get a school in each quadrant [of the city], and that's the intent. It's the full intent," Harrell said.
"We know that there will be two schools on the west side. There's an absolute commitment to that," said school Superintendent Kathryn Hellweg, adding that she wants the board to make the site selection decisions soon so the project can stay on schedule.
The board still plans for all city students to attend new schools, said Robert L. Faulkner Sr., board president.
The city school district is engaged in a $153 million construction project that will replace its 13 school buildings with five new ones by mid-2009. The project is to consist of a new Warren G. Harding High School adjacent to the current one and four new buildings for kindergarten through eighth grade -- one in each quadrant of town.
Preparations for construction of the new K-8 building on Willard Avenue, Southeast, have begun, with the vacant former Willard School having recently been demolished.
Ground was broken last fall for the new K-8 building, which will be off Atlantic Avenue, Northeast, next to Lincoln Elementary School, where the board already owned the full 20-acre site.