School’s request for vandalism repairs slips through the cracks

Now, they can’t believe the sheer mindlessness of the school system’s response to it.

“Oh, they were so upset by the whole thing,” Constable said last week as the school year wrapped up. She teaches age arts at the school, located at Loch Raven and Gorsuch, just south of City College. She’s also the lead teacher in the school’s landscape design project.

It’s one of the things that makes the Stadium School special. Its students — fourth- to eighth-graders — combine academics with special projects. Also, one of its missions is to reduce after-school youth violence in the area. On both counts, the vandalism struck a nerve.

As did the school system’s response.

“The kids came running up to my room,” Constable said, “saying, ‘Miss Katie, did you see what happened? This is so horrible that somebody could do this.’ One child, who’s been involved in the landscaping project for the last three years, was almost in tears. Then they went out and cleaned up as best they could. But it’s more than they could handle.”

Principal Ron Shelley met with Constable and Fran Horich, who works on the landscaping project. Horich is a habitat steward with the National Wildlife Federation and volunteers at the school. She’s been trained to guide people “to make surroundings friendly for humans, birds and animals.”

It’s called the Stadium School because the intent was to hold classes at the now-departed Memorial Stadium. When that didn’t work out, it operated for much of a decade at a high-rise on Northern Parkway. For the past three years, it has been operating out of a former elementary school.

“But we want a campus that’s more than asphalt,” Horich said. “And, from the start, the kids have been intimately involved in the physical development of the campus. They’ve planted and maintained gardens, for example. ... We’ve got about 150 kids involved in about eight different projects.”

One project was a broken-down retaining wall by a steep hill with considerable erosion. Constable went to a friend, Bob Kinsley, owner of a construction company, who built a new retaining wall with steps between the school and City College.

“It transformed that part of the campus,” Horich said. “It made it safer, and it made it really nice looking.”

“And, for kids who are so involved in their school’s appearance, it was a real matter of pride,” Constable said. “That’s why they’re so upset now. We’ve got a school full of kids who are really involved with making this a kind of second home.”

Principal Shelley immediately went into action. He called the city school system’s educational building supervisor, Sharon Logan. He says he was assured that landscape specialists would come the next day to begin repairs.

That was in April.

So, after a while, when nobody showed up, Shelley called back. He was assured the city would respond the next day. That was in May.

He called back later in May and was again assured there would be a response the next day.

On Friday, the school year ended. No one has yet come to the Stadium School to begin repairs. So a call was placed to Sharon Logan.

“The Stadium School?” she asked. “What repairs?”

“You don’t remember talking to the principal at the Stadium School about vandalism?” she was asked.

“Nope.”

“You mean, they’re making up a story about speaking to you?”

“Oh,” Logan said, “there were some complaints that were put into the access system and put into the repair shop.”

“So, you do remember?”

“I just hand out assignments,” Logan said.

“Well, what happened to those assignments?”

“Hello?” Logan said.

“What happened to those assignments?”

“Hello?” Logan said again. “Hello?”

“What happened to those assignments?” she was asked in a louder voice.

There was no reply.

A call back to Logan, moments later, got no response at all.

Not unlike the response the Stadium School has gotten since April.

Please send news tips to Michael Olesker at olesker@baltimoreexaminer.com.