Astoria, Oregon ~ January 25, 2011
When, in a blog comment, Woody expressed surprise that I could get close enough to Gunderson's and Number 10 Sixth Street to take these pictures, I explained that I'd been standing right up against the chain-link fence with my phone camera. As you can see, the River Walk and trolley are still available for use, and the fencing keeps people out, but not that far away from the buildings. I hear that this is a prime subject for photographers these days.
Speaking of sad stories and buildings, or in this case institutions and the quality of education in our area, I've just heard the news that St. Mary, Star of the Sea School (which I posted here and here the other day completely coincidentally) will be closing at the end of this term after a history of one hundred and thirteen years.
I have heard only excellent things about this school. Kids seem actually to enjoy attending. (When is the last time I heard that about a school, or maybe I'm prejudiced from my early years? I had many good teachers, but I felt restricted. When I hear that kids are loving their school, I have to think that something special is going on.) We had comments on this blog's Facebook page about people who had attended in years past and loved the school. The classes are held to about 15 students, and kids have a good time learning. The issue, of course, is money. I know one 10-year-old who is greatly upset by this announcement.
6 comments:
What a shame that this school closes after more than a century of good teaching. It happens everywhere though, something had gone wrong with the whole education thing, I guess.
Ahh, thanks for that explanation. I like the planks butt against the tracks and the retaining walls.
It's very sad that the school will close, a number of them close every year around here.
I'm assuming that this is a Catholic school...private schools often are able to garner enough funds to keep going...wonder what happened here. The public schools are really suffering in Florida!
The school closure perplexes me... I had read that it was one of Obama's priorities. If money is the only issue, someone should go talk to Bill Gates... he's on the education wagon at the moment.
Bill Gates won't fund Catholic schools. Funds have been exhausted. Enrollment has been down due to no jobs in this area. The school needs $800,000 a year to operate and is no longer doable. Very sad...AND very sad that our local public schools' budget continues to be cut. All they need is 120 extra kids in their already overcrowded classrooms.
@Anon... I understand. And yes, sad about the budget cuts. Very. Didn't I just hear Obama say in his State of the Union speech that education was THE way to the American future? But I guess there are too many loud "stop spending" calls, and education is [erroneously in my opinion] not seen as a bread-and-butter issue by many now in your Congress.
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