New Woodburn Community School

MEAN NOT GREEN

Mon Schools’ intended so-called green school would destroy a seven acre farm field to build a large sprawling facility, instead of redeveloping the existing Woodburn schoolgrounds.

‎”[Redeveloping] Any previously disturbed urban site is much greener than taking a greenfield site out of someplace.” – Richard Cook, architect

And so it is that Mon Schools’ intended green school is basically a phony green school. It is as phony and negligent as the rest of the school siting process has been and continues to be.

“The crown jewel of sustainable buildings in West Virginia” that Dr. Mark Manchin SBA Director and green school grantor wants “people from all over to see [as] one of the best green schools in the US” would be based on the lie of a green site.

By reasonable estimate, the 705/119 intersection site is also by far the most expensive location available. Thus Mon Schools’ mean attitude toward greenery extends to money as well. Why does the school district act like it hates farmland and money? Why does it act like it loves pollution and congestion and high traffic for its smallest children Pre-K to 5th grade?

How green can it be to site children at an accident prone and polluted intersection? Why is Mon Schools so mean?

Oh, that’s right, the Mon Schools Superintendent is on record as a strong advocate of corporal punishment in schools. Hitting kids with heavy paddles, blocks of wood. That is “spanking” in schools. In 1987 the Charleston Daily Mail (Jack Deutsch, February 18) reported that Frank Devono

the president of the state Association of Elementary School Principals…complained that opponents of corporal punishment always emphasize that paddling is a negative experience.

“Where is the positive? Why is it always the negative?” asked Frank Devono, president of the principals association.

We don’t make up this idiocy, folks. We just report it. Yes, adults hitting children with blocks of wood is such a “positive” experience for everyone involved. Of course. Who could imagine otherwise? Not Devono.

Devono spoke in favor of the bill, which would remove the 12-hour “cooling off” period. Under current state law, principals must wait 12 hours after warning students of a paddling before carrying out the punishment.

Seven years later, sanity prevailed when the state of West Virginia banned corporal punishment – hitting kids with paddles – from schools altogether.

But the intended mean green school on the 705/Mileground intersection goes thumping forth under the firm hand of Superintendent Devono.

And yes that’s right Mountaineer fans, the mean green school goes on in apparent full accord with the oh so enlightened officials of West Virginia University who would sell farmland for the school. In this putrid deal, the money-grubbing hands of WVU will be cash-filled as the esteemed university leaves the scene.

WVU and its Board of Governors must be so proud to be contemplating selling THIS land at THAT intersection for THOSE purposes.

It’s mean. It’s phony. And not a little bit idiotic.