An Aggressive School District Rebuilding Plan

Four years ago, the City School District of Albany began to evaluate all of its schools buildings. Those findings led to a sweeping plan that would renovate all but one building, including raising and rebuild a few, and construction a new middle school. The plan had stalled after strong opposition to locate a thrid middle school inside a residential neighborhood adjacent to an Interstate and in a wetland led the distirct to look for another site. Mayor Jennings offered the school district some land to build the school at a city park and the plan started to gain steam again. However, there was a strong opposition group developing that opposed to using less than 3 acres at a 20+ acre park to site the middle school building. A coalition of nearly 40 community groups, including neighborhood assocations, the NAACP, and historic preservtionsists, worked to support the plan and to pass the $175 million plan. The community, by a 2 to 1 margin, passed the plan, hailed by supporters as the most important piece of economic development in a city where the old schools are overcrowding were seen as pushing young families towards the suburbs.

Thanks to Sean M. Maguire