The closing of Pratt School was as devastating to Prospect Park in 1982
as it is likely to be should it happen again. The building was saved then by a
group of neighbors with the help of MPS by keeping it open as a Community
Education Center managed by MPS Community Education who presently budget $200,000
per year for this purpose. While 80 students is small for a school but at the
end of the next school year enrollment should be well over 100 when the final
grade of the K-5 school component of the Pratt Building programs that occupy
every room of the building year round--it is disingenuous for anyone to suggest
at this point that a program in an MPS building that is fully utilized is
being subsidized without any evidence (none surfaced so far). I am unaware of any
potential buyers of the Pratt building at this time and wish that Mr.
Atherton would share this information with the list as well as folks interested in
saving both the building and the school component. In the over ten years that I
have lived in Prospect Park, I am unaware of anyone expressing an interest in
this building for anything but a school use; MPS policy is to raze school
buildings that are closed, and it is my understanding that, until the neighborhood
objected, this was the plan for Pratt.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with our little Prospect Park school
tempest, I must apologize for these exchanges and offer the explanation that
emotions are a bit frazzled here. Michael Atherton has been involved in efforts
to save Pratt in his own unique way as an advocate for charter schools. I
think most school parents and neighbors accept that a charter school on the Pratt
site might well be an acceptable outcome, but prefer a neighborhood school
operated by MPS within their system rather than as a charter, an option that
none of us are anxious to experiment with except as a last resort, I believe. In
fact many of us believe that the charter school movement has created much of
the enrollment declines forcing the planned closures of many MPS school
buildings and programs, along with the despicable underfunding of urban schools. Of
course, as usual, I have not conducted any studies or surveys (stinking or not)
of my neighborhood, but I believe my suppositions here to be accurate; the
savaging of MPS budgets in response to underfunding has made it difficult to get
any accurate data from them so far, and the politics behind given statements
and actions serve to complicate things as well.
I feel I must apologize to those of you on this list having no interest
in this rather miniscule Minneapolis issue; even though it is an obscure part
of the larger issue of underfunding urban schools, it is very big indeed to
most Prospect Park residents. I trust that you will give Mr. Atherton's posts
your usual regard on this topic as with others he posts on the list. The emotions
in our neighborhood could easily generate nearly the volume of posts as the
proposed tobacco bans, but I hope they will not and end soon.
Bill Kahn, VP of Pratt Community Education Center Council, Inc. (until the
end of the fiscal year)
Prospect Park
*****************************************************
Message: 18
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 08:55:10 -0500
From: "Michael Atherton" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Mpls] Pratt Building Named as Endangered Historic Site
To: "'mpls-issues'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Craig Cox wrote in The Minneapolis Observer:
> SCHOOL NAMED AS ONE OF STATE'S 10 MOST ENDANGERED HISTORIC SITES
> Pratt Community School, one of 10 Minneapolis schools slated to be
> closed this fall due to budget cuts, has shown up on another list:
> One of the state's 10 most endangered historic sites.
> The Preservation Alliance cited the 106-year-old school for its
> importance in the history of the neighborhood, Alliance board member
> Will Stark told Jim Thorp in the Southeast Angle. Stark said inclusion
> on the list will help raise awareness of the threats to the building.
> Closing the school would be "devastating," said Pratt parent Darin
> Warling. "This community was built around the school, the [Prospect Park
United
> Methodist] church, and the park. Remove one of the legs of the tripod and
the
> whole thing falls."
Although, I support the preservation of the Pratt building, the closing
of Pratt Elementary would have little impact. The elementary school
has only been reopened for four years and currently enrolls only 80
students, it is in effect subsidized by other schools in the District.
The campaign to save Pratt has included a number of misrepresentations
as to the quality of the school based on a disproportional representation
of White and Asian students.
Potential buyers have stated that they intend to maintain the exterior
of the building as is and there is a plan by some parents in Prospect
Park to replace the District school with a charter if the School Board
decides to close Pratt as planned and the Mayor has promised to help
encourage a transfer of ownership that would allow a charter school
to use the building.
The sky is not falling in Prospect Park and neither is the Pratt
building. The question is whether other public school parents
in the District want to pay to maintain an elementary school of 80
students as a sham excuse for preservation.
Michael Atherton
Prospect Park
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