Sprawl #5: An Insult That Should Not Be Repeated

In 1967 the Jefferson City School Board purchased land in a residential subdivision on the East Side to build a new grade school. Old East School at that time was the city's second most populous elementary school. The ratio of students per square foot at East was double that of other schools in the district.

Five years later a school board dominated by members with 65109 (west end) zip codes decided that maybe they really didn't need a school there after all. Superintendent Joe Nichols, Jr. said in the News Tribune article that "It's not that the district won't build. It's just a matter of time." 

Eventually the board sold the land to the highest bidder and moved their sights westward toward to preserve and enhance their own neighborhoods. 

With this one decision the growth patterns of Jefferson City were, perhaps irrevocably, established. The decison was not based on a re-evaluation of East School demographics. The reasons were policital and self-serving. 

Fast Forward.

It was interesting that within days following the announcement that Pioneer Ridge grade school would be constructed in a field on the West Side (across from a mobile home park and a 60 year old motel), ads appeared for the new subdivisions that were being constructed adjacent to the school, subdivisions that would host $300K houses. Think how the growth patterns of Jefferson City would have been different if the school board had not decided in 1972 where they wanted growth to occur. 

It's time that the Jefferson City School Board acknowledge the dominant role they play in our community's urban planning and stop pretending that school location is just an issue related to a very narrow definition of "education."

Fast forward again.

January 16, 2011 news Tribune headline: "Board to Consider Land Purchase." The site would be for a gradeschool. Where? On the East Side, a quarter mile away from where the school should have been built in 1972. But East School is not receiving much more attention in 2012 than it did forty years ago. It is presently the only gradeschool in the district that uses trailers for classrooms due to overcrowding. The question is whether history will repeat itself and whether the purchase of this land is just for eventual resale. When Joe Nichols said "It's just a matter of time," how many decades was he thinking about?

Thomas Jefferson said that "the price of democracy is vigilence." I think tt's time for a little more vigilence in our community about how location of public amenities dictate our future.