Elmhurst bunch fights for their school

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE)-- - A large and very vocal crowd gathered at Elmhurst High School to voice their opinions about the proposed closing of the school. Fort Wayne Community Schools Superintendent Dr. Wendy Robinson and the school board took heat over the possible closure.

700 people packed inside the Elmhurst High School Auditorium to voice their concerns.

"Elmhurst is a family," said one Elmhurst student.

People in the crowd expressed their emotions in different ways. Some cheered, others cried, and some even booed Dr. Robinson and the board. Dozens of people went to the mic to express their opinion.

"You want to take this school away from these kids, and that's not right," said one opponent of the proposal.

Dr. Robinson says she understands the emotion of cutting the school, but the district has to cut $15 million dollars from its budget. The Elmhurst Community isn't buying it, some asked Dr. Robinson confrontational questions, "Do you know what a family is," said one Elmhurst student.

The crowd was touched by the students who streamed to the mic with a strong plea to the board.

"You only get to graduate once, and I want to graduate as a Trojan," said one Elmhurst student.

On Thursday, FWCS Superintendent Dr. Wendy Robinson wasn’t available, but its Public Information Officer said the strong words from the community were expected at Wednesday night’s meeting.

"We did expect that people would be unhappy, we expected people would be upset. This is emotional for them and we certainly expected that," Spokesperson Krista Stockman said.

"There was an awful lot of emotion and that's understandable," FWCS School Board President Mark GiaQuinta said.

This isn’t the first time for talk of closing Elmhurst.

"We know it’s always on the chopping block," Elmhurst supporter Carl Harz said back in 2007.

That’s when it looked like a done deal that the school would close. It was a similar battle: the school district created a $500 million range plan, which included closing Elmhurst.

Supporters packed meetings, and in the end, the school board back then actually had a change of heart.

"There are a lot of reasons to keep it open. For me, it was an easy change of mind," former FWCS School Board Member Jon Olinger said.

"There was just a sense the savings didn't justify the disruption of the learning environment," FWCS School Board Member Mark GiaQuinta said in 2007.

"I'd like to see another option for Elmhurst. Option 1, lets keep it open," FWCS School Board Member Steven Corona said in 2007.

NewsChannel 15 video inside the school back in 2007 shows the deteriorating condition of the building.

School officials then said there were several reasons they didn't want to invest further in Elmhurst, and the next-door rock quarry was a large part of that.

That's because dust from daily blasting clogs the ventilation system, and the school's foundation shakes daily.

That made the district feel that the life expectancy of repairs would be significantly lower than in other schools and not a good investment.

At the last minute, the school board changed its mind at a meeting in early 2007.

President Mark GiaQuinta doesn't expect that to be the case this time around in 2010.

"I don't think the issue was driven by the dire financial picture we're faced with right now. This closing is the result of a cut by Governor Daniels of $300 million," GiaQuinta said Thursday.

FWCS is also proposing to cut Pleasant Center Elementary. The two school cuts will save the district $1.9 million. The school board will vote on these cuts at its meeting on March 22nd. There are still two more public meetings scheduled before that vote.

• Pleasant Center Information Meeting – 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 16, at Pleasant Center, 2323 W.
Pleasant Center Road

• Public Forum on Budget Reductions – 6 p.m. Thursday, March 18, at the Grile Administrative
Center, 1200 S. Clinton St.