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To all BISD Officials, City
Officials, Concerned Citizens and Fellow
"Greenies":
Time is critical for the bond issue! Many
ideas, as well as divisions in ideas, abound. Focus seems
to be disjointed. Among the various parties who will
be in the decision-making process of which direction to take South
Park, there seems to be no concensus.
If I may, I'd like to ask all who are interested
in the future of South Park to consider, seriously consider, this
blueprint for a restoration of the school and the
community. Though the bond issue is necessary for the
funds to do the remodeling and repairs, this plan is also for the
School Officials and the City Planners to consider as an "overall
goal".
I. Return South Park school
structure to a high school.
A.
Repair the building, rebuild the gym if necessary, while
maintaining the historical esthetics of the school.
B.
Repair, remodel the stadium. Restore the "out
gate" to the stadium. It's a landmark!
C.
Provide a curriculum that is quality so that people will
WANT their children AND those children will want to go
to school there; ie; offering music, art, sports, sciences,
math, languages, etc.
D.
Return all high school age kids who live in the South Park
Neighborhood and are currently attending West Brook and Ozen to the
new and improved South Park High School. (the school
could remain closed during renovations - see No. III as to what
do to with the current students)
II Repair Bingman
Elementary
A.
Repair the building
B.
Provide a curriculum that is quality so that people will WANT
their young children to go there, giving their young minds the
proper foundation for higher learning.
C. Fill
the facility with students who are currently attending
Pietzsch-MacArthur and whatever other grade schoolers live in the
South Park Neighborhood who are currently attending other elementary
schools elsewhere in the city.
III Return MacArthur to Middle
School status
A. Provide a
curriculum that is quality so that students will WANT to be
enrolled there.
B. Move all
middle school grades to the complex.
C. If there is
an overflow of grade school students after Bingman is filled,
then set up part of the facility to accommodate those students -
possibly make the complex grades 5-8 instead of grades 6-8; and
Bingman to accommodate grades K-5 if space is an issue.
BENEFITS:
1.
Ozen and West Brook, and other schools now accommodating SP
students, would be relieved of some overcrowding if the SP
students were educated in South Park.
2. Children
who are now transported to other parts of the city would be educated
in their own neighborhood, which is both conducive to a strong
community spirit, convenient, and gives hope to a
community.
3. People
would desire their children to attend a great
community with educational facilities that fit their needs, and
would begin to move back into the area to utilize the schools
offered there.
4. Businesses and
commerce would begin to see a benefit to open within the South Park
Neighborhood boundaries, which as of now, is quite limited.
That would give business people the chance to renovate some of the
available buildings as well as lending an air of respect that
would invite new businesses to locate in South Park. At
this time, residents have to leave the area for most shopping and
virtually all dining with the exception of fast foods.
5. Lamar University
would benefit because of the improved community standards
surrounding it.
6. The City would
benefit because it would hold within its city limits a section
of the city that would be revived and brought back to life
bringing with it better commerce and even improving the tax base.
7. The same
pride that abounded in the past in South Park would begin to take
hold and the community would be breathing new life, new life so
desperately needed for the residents of South Park.
8. Healing
could begin in the hearts of those who remember the death of South
Park.
This is a win-win. There are no
negatives! South Park has been on decline ever since the
schools were changed. A school system is the backbone of
any community. No better time than now to go for the
whole picture -- not what will benefit the few now, but the
community as a whole for a long-term vision for the future.
So, my cry is to go for
broke. "Save South Park" -- most
definitely Save South Park School. But my cry is also Save South Park Neighborhood.
ALTERNATIVES:
1. South Park Neighborhood
structures will continue to decline.
2. People will continue to move
away.
3. What few
businesses there will move away.
SUMMARY:
What will the city have left? Do you want
that entire section of the city that houses our University, of
which we are so proud, to be surrounded by slums because
the city and school system abandoned that area of the
city? Even our little replica of Gladys City is located in
South Park; and what a historical moment that was for our
city! Do we show no more pride in our town and our
history than what is evident now in the streets of South
Park?
Monies that would be expended to bring about
these changes would not be for building some new structure
that would have no impact on the community as a whole. The new
structures would be needing repairs, or deteriorate, in a
few short years, etc. The above plan would be an
investment for the future of the community, the city, the
University, and certainly the current and future homeowners and
residents of that community.
I'm sure I will think of many other points I will
wish I had added. I'm also sure if you will allow your
thinking to progress down this avenue of thought, you will come up
with even more and more benefits and advantages to a full school
structure, grades K-12, to be housed within the boundaries of the
South Park Neighborhood, utilizing the one building that stands as
a proud and formidable icon for unity, pride and
education.
In my way of thinking, this is the simplest, most
efficient, financially feasible, hopeful,
indeed, common-sense approach and solution to the
dilemma in which we find ourselves.
Most sincerely,
Cheryl "Sherry" Moyer Sharp
SPHS-'65
Charter class of Bingman Elementary (1952 as a
kindergartner)
Native of Beaumont
Sixth generation in Southeast Texas
I
CARE!!!
I totally concur and would only add
that South Park served Beaumont before Beaumont was no more than a
dirt road in the woods. Let us not forget from whence we
came!
Lou Bodden Buxton
SPHS Class of '65
Giles Elementary grades 1-6
MacArthur Junior High grades
7-9
South Park High School grades
10-12
60 year resident of Southeast
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