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June 4, 2012

EDITORIAL: Final bow for C.R.

School will be forever open in local memories

The Tribune-Star

It makes every bit of logical sense to close Chauncey Rose Middle School because of declining enrollment and failing physical facilities. But as our writers and photographers reported to you last week, something very special has come sadly to an end there. And that tugs at the heart.

Thursday was the last day of school — ever — at a historic site that started as Rose Polytechnic Institute, later became Gerstmeyer High School and opened as Chauncey Rose in 1972. As first a junior high and later a middle school, C.R. has played a special role as truly a neighborhood school for inner-city communities that need points of pride and centers of cohesion.

That C.R. resonated royally with its neighbors was obvious in recent years as patrons and friends lobbied for the school to remain open and as the Vigo County School Board debated the issue. And when the unpleasant decision to close the school came, the school family and the school corporation seem to have worked together to do what was and is best for the children — a goal ever so more important than talk of facilities and dollars — and to dedicate the school’s last year in honor of its history and significance.

Last week, the old school was sent off in fitting style — to retirement, one could call it — as the final class of eighth-graders graduated to move on to high school, and as sixth- and seventh-graders moved on to a new middle school, either Woodrow Wilson or Otter Creek.

Howard Greninger and Lisa Trigg wrote and Joseph C. Garza showed in photos in Friday’s paper that students, former students (some of whom were parents of current students), teachers and staff are convinced that C.R. is the best school they have ever known. That’s because the school was much more than brick and mortar — maybe least of all was it brick and mortar. It was people who cared about the children who passed through its halls, people who sought to make those lives better, kinder and richer in ways that went beyond the imparting of knowledge to include acting on behalf of the student’s life outside school. One veteran teacher was so convinced of that truth that she chose to retire rather than move to another school next year. She and countless other teachers and staff members — janitors, cooks — deserve the community’s thanks for doing such good work for so long.

C.R.’s special qualities are gifts that all former students, but especially those sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders who are the last of their classes at Chauncey Rose, should take with them throughout life as singular distinctions and points of personal pride.

That pride will live on in many respects as the old school takes on new life in coming months as part of Terre Haute Boys and Girls Club — perhaps eventually becoming the main campus of that vital youth-serving organization if it moves its operation there from Third Street. The school board donated the land and buildings to the club in November. So, soon the sounds of young voices and the activities of young bodies will again fill the building. The club, as was the school, will be a vital link to things good, wholesome, educational and fun in the C.R. neighborhoods and beyond.

But, still, that won’t be the same, for gone will be favorite teachers, class bells, the sound of chalk on the board, the bustle of the lunchroom, the kindness of a staff member, the clatter of times between classes, the daily arrival and departure of students and staff by bus, car and foot.

Those are things purely red-and-gold, memories and experiences that students and staff will take with them to other places — places that may never be as special as Chauncey Rose.

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