Sheboygan letter-writers on school district land and proposed new Urban Middle School site
Here are this week's letters to the editor of the Sheboygan Press. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.
How things change over time
The following four paragraphs are portions of an article from the Sheboygan Press published Dec. 10, 2015, and titled “40 acres of land gifted to Sheboygan Area School District”:
Approximately 40 acres of green space north of the former Polar Ware site has been gifted to the Sheboygan Area School District by the Walter Vollrath family and David Sachse family.
Superintendent Joseph Sheehan said in the future it could be utilized for athletic fields or a new school if it becomes needed.
The school district had looked into purchasing the property in 2007 for $7 million to relocate administrative offices and build athletic fields, but the school board ultimately decided not to pursue the purchase, citing too high of costs.
This gift “will allow the Sheboygan Area School District to consider future use including practice fields or a future school,” Sheboygan Area School District Board of Education President David Gallianetti said.
Clearly, the district believed building athletic fields or even a school on the Polar Ware site was a great idea in 2015.
Now, nine years later, the exact same property is somehow not useable?
The industrial setting the district now believes renders that land “unsuitable” existed in place nine years ago. What changed?
As the 2015 Press article indicated, in 2007, the Polar Ware property asking price was $7 million. SASD is sitting on a gold mine. They should use it.
Steve Kellner
Sheboygan
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Much more to a new school than just a new building
After reading the Press article regarding the traffic study pertaining to the proposed new Urban Middle School site, it appears a very important aspect is being glossed over.
As a person who has seen the significant number of students who currently walk to school, I wonder how the additional costs to bus them and what those costs are will be addressed.
This cost will not only be in dollars, but in additional air pollution that the administration must determine.
There’s a lot more to this than just a new building.
Has due diligence been done on the property regarding any potential contamination? There used to be a junkyard in close proximity.
Unfortunately, it seems a lot of decision-making has already taken place, and these meetings are just eyewash to try to justify those decisions.
Tom Pilgrim
Kohler
Our letters policy
Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to news@sheboyganpress.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@gannett.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.
This article originally appeared on Sheboygan Press: Sheboygan letters on school district land, Urban Middle School site
