Got this email today from a reader about tonight’s Erie School Board meeting.

Here ’tis:

At tonight’s Erie School Board meeting, the school board will be announcing the fate of Roosevelt School. As you know, Roosevelt School has been slated for demolition so the School District can build a new school.

A local non-profit group, The Erie Center for Design and Preservation, brought together the school board, Preservation Pennsylvania, and three independent architects to assess to value of renovating the building, rather than destroying yet another building in Erie of historic value. The study found having the building renovated, rather than rebuilt would cost just as much if not less than rebuilding from the ground up.

The details of this study can be found here:
http://www.eriecdp.org/projects.html

Despite all of this, the Erie School Board’s chief architect, Bob Marz, of Roth Marz Construction, will more than likely ignore these findings and have the school demolished anyway.

In May 2009 Architect Bob Marz advised the Erie School District that Roosevelt was not architecturally significant, and, that new construction lasts longer than renovations. When asked to support these two claims, Marz has remained silent in the face of emails, letters, and a direct “order” from the School Board President to respond.

Architect Bob Marz and the Erie School Board has seen fit to plod on towards demolition of four city schools despite the repeated advice of Pulitzer prize winning author, a PA State Agency, three skilled architects, and, the Erie Center for Design and Preservation.

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
Tomorrow, WEDNESDAY, Feb.3. at 6 pm the School Board will be holding some sort of public presentation/discussion about their construction (and demolition) plans. Anyone who is present at 6PM when the meeting starts will be given 3 minutes to speak to the School Board.
The meeting takes place at the Washington Education Center: 148 West 21st.