To the editor:
I am reading a Gloucester Daily Times article that describes a proposed survey of residents asking us if we prefer our present "neighborhood school" system to reopening Fuller school.
This is nonsense.
The neighborhood schools in our central city were closed years ago. We have no neighborhood school from the Cut Bridge to Grant Circle. The only elementary school anywhere near our central city is Veterans, way over on the east side of Portuguese Hill.
The children from our central city are bused to Plum Cove, Beeman, and across the river to the decrepit West Parish.
Therefore, using the words "neighborhood schools" to describe the system we have is self-delusion. Any survey that uses such words is biased in that it implies that we presently have a "feel good" system that we do not remotely approach. Even Plum Cove, way out in Lanesville, is presently called a "neighborhood school" for some children from downtown.
We might at least honestly face the facts of what we really have before deciding what we want.
I do not think many people fought harder than I for our "neighborhood school" system back when our downtown schools were being closed, but we lost that battle and we no longer have neighborhood schools, even for the children in the neighborhoods where the schools are, because children from all over the city are bused to them.
We lost this neighborhood school battle years ago. I think it is important to face that fact and move on.
Otherwise, we are making decisions based on a false and misleading assumption.
Damon E. Cummings
Washington Street, Gloucester
