Pupils appreciate commitment to excellence

By Harold Gwin

The new school will house pupils from the Alpha and Athena gender schools.

YOUNGSTOWN — Fabian Don Juan might never attend a class in the new Wilson Middle School, but that didn’t prevent him from showing his enthusiasm for the project as the city school district broke ground on the building.

The new Wilson, to open around midyear 2009-10, will house the Alpha: School of Excellence for Boys and the Athena: School of Excellence for Girls, both of which are now located in the former Princeton building on Hillman Street.

Eighth-grader Don Juan, 14, will go to East or Chaney high school next year.

It would have been nice to be in the new school for a year, he said, but Alpha serves only seventh- and eighth-graders.

Parnell Pardue, the young man seated next to him during the groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday, is 13 and a seventh-grader. Part of his eighth grade should be spent at Wilson, and he’s looking forward to getting into the new facility.

The two were part of a contingent of about 30 Alpha and Athena pupils who got to attend the event.

Don Juan was entrusted with carrying a large banner the Alpha pupils made in art class for the groundbreaking, keeping it carefully folded on his lap until the time came to unveil it as the first shovels of dirt were turned for the project.

The Athena girls brought their own sign.

Both called on the public to support the school district’s tax levy on Tuesday’s ballot, and they were signed by children from the schools.

Wendy Webb, superintendent, said it was the children who made the construction of Wilson a reality.

It’s No. 13 in a proposed 14-building, $190 million school rebuilding program nearing its end in Youngstown, and there was a point when the school might have been withdrawn from the project list, Webb said.

The Ohio School Facilities Commission, which is picking up about 80 percent of the rebuilding program cost, had revamped the program a couple of times as it reviewed declining enrollments in the district, and Wilson was in danger of not making the final cut, she said.

A visit to Youngstown by Michael C. Shoemaker, OSFC executive director, turned things around. He met and spoke with pupils and saw their desire to learn and the importance they placed on having a new building, Webb said.

“He decided you needed new schools,” she said, adding, “You are the image of Youngstown City Schools, you are the change.”

A lot of adults are working hard for the children in the city schools, Shelley Murray, school board president, told the pupils at the ceremony, urging them to continue to do their part in improving the school system.

Paul Ricciutti, director of planning for balog steines hendricks & manchester architects inc., the building design company, said he has a long history with the Wilson location at Gibson Street and Marmion Avenue, the site of the former Woodrow Wilson High School which has been demolished as part of the rebuilding program.

He said he first came to the school as an eighth-grader in 1948 and spent the next five years there where a mechanical drawing teacher taught him how to draw, starting him on a career path that led to him becoming an architect.

When he learned the city schools were launching a rebuilding program, he said he insisted that his company have some part in the effort.

“I’m extremely proud of this building,” he said, citing what he said are great design features that will encourage learning.

The city school board awarded $10.5 million in construction contracts for the job last week.

gwin@vindy.com