Commentary Follow-up / Evan Smith
After I wrote a few days ago that cost isn’t a factor in the settlement between the School District and the Shoreline Historical Museum, I got a comment from a reader.
After I wrote a few days ago that cost isn’t a factor in the settlement between the School District and the Shoreline Historical Museum, I got a comment from a reader.
I had noted that the $1.5 million that the District will spend to move the old Ronald School building for the Museum is no more than the School District would have had to spend to retrofit the building under its earlier plan to incorporate the building into a rebuilt Shorewood High School.
The reader said this:
“If the district were just to leave the Museum as it is and build on the rest of the campus, that $1.5 million would be available for education. It’s all in the spin.”
There are several problems with leaving the museum where it is.
ReplyDeleteFirst is that in determining the safety of that building, it was determined that if that building was left in the same location and untouched, we would have to stay 45 feet away from the building and prevent students from entering this space. This means we would need to put a huge fence around the museum which would take away from the appearance of the new school and the space available for the school grounds. Shorewood already has 1/3 less property than Shorecrest to build the same amount of building, etc on.
2nd, The property that the museum in on is owned by the Shoreline School District and cannot be given to the Museum because that is a gift of public funds. Besides, as stated above, that property is needed to fit the new school on.
So, the settlement between the district and the Museum is a win-win. The community gets to keep the museum and the children of Shoreline get a safe and healthy new high school. So, please vote YES on all three school propositions.
Veronica Cook
Shoreline