It's obvious that with Pioneer to the southwest, Huron to the north, the location for a new high school would not be the far west side of Ann Arbor. The southeast would seem logical, particularly since that is where the need and growth are.

• Whose kids will get to walk to school?
• Which kids and parents will have to get all the way across town to get to school events?
• Why is it that the the Superintendent says the District will not announce attendance boundaries until the Fall of 2006?

Economically disadvantaged students in Ann Arbor	African-American students in Ann Arbor
click the maps to see larger versions

Read the essay by J. Mark Finnegandetailing how the currently proposed site is unjust for economically disadvantaged students.

Read another essay by J. Mark Finnegandetailing how the currently proposed site is unfair for African-Amercian students.

The AAPS District's own data shows clearly:

• the six school subdistricts with the highest percentage of economically disadvantaged students are contiguous and concentrated in the southeast corner of Ann Arbor
• the six school subdistricts with the lowest percentage of economically disadvantaged students are concentrated in the north and west of Ann Arbor.

Also see the map showing the percentage of African American students in each of the elementary school boundaries.

Why doesn't the Administration heed the warning in its own data?

• Look at a map of the location of economically disadvantaged students created based on the District's own data. Why are the AAPS and the Superintendent not talking about how their own data argues strongly for a school in the southeast?
• Look at the District's data compiled to compare the MEAP scores of economically disadvantaged students to the general population and the geographic distance of these students from the proposed location of the new high school.
• Read theAnn Arbor District Black Parents and Students Support Group's June 9, 2004 Report to the Board. See why the group is concerned that the plan does not in any way address the achievement gap.

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So, why is the school not put in the southeast? The AAPS says that other sites were considered but rejected. The reasons are silly:

• the Maple/Miller/M-14 site was already owned by the AAPS (why not swap the land for a better spot where the school is needed, leaving the chosen site as part, for example, of the Greenbelt?)
• the site in the southeast that was briefly looked at did not have utilities hooked up and that would have been an extra expense (what about the expense of running sewer and water to the chosen site and the expense, not included in the bond, of massive road changes to the entire area?)

 

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