Thomas Breen file photo
Closed school, future black box theater, on Valley St?
Maya McFadden photo
Smith dreams of black box theatre and second community center for Ward 30.
If it was up to West Rock/West Hills Alder Honda Smith, her ward would put two now-vacant former public school buildings — including the recently shuttered ex-Clarence Rogers School on Wilmot Road — back to use by creating a black box theater for family-friendly programming, a rental space, a second community center, and an all-boys charter school.
Smith detailed those hoped-for plans on Sunday at a meet and greet and Ward 30 Democratic Ward Committee straw poll vote in the runup to the citywide Democratic Town Committee endorsement convention on Tuesday at Betsy Ross Parish Hall on Kimberly Avenue.
She described those plans when she and other candidates for local office were asked what they’d like to see happen with two closed school buildings in the neighborhood.
One of those is the former West Rock STREAM Academy building at 311 Valley St., which closed in 2021 due to HVAC issues. The other is one of the two buildings that make up the current Brennan-Rogers School on Wilmot Road, which the school district’s spokesperson said closed at the end of this year due to declining enrollment. (The building that closed is the former Clarence Rogers School at 199 Wilmot Rd.; the former Katherine Brennan School at 200 Wilmot Rd. remains open.)
The weekend event was hosted by Ward 30 Democratic Ward Committee Co-Chair Iva Johnson, who arranged the gathering in the backyard of her home on Rock Creek Road. Johnson and co-chair Alberta Witherspoon promised Sunday to “support the voice of the ward” at Tuesday’s convention, which in turn will determine which candidates for local office will appear at the top of the ballot during the Sept. 12 Democratic Party primary.
In the race for mayor, the war committee backed Democratic challenger and retired police Sgt. Shafiq Abdussabur with16 votes. Two-term incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker got seven votes, ex-McKinsey consultant Tom Goldenberg got two votes, and former legal aid attorney Liam Brennan got one.
Sundays gathering for ward 30.
During the three-hour event, 25 West Rock/West Hills residents and ward committee members listened to opening speeches by and asked questions of the four Democratic mayoral contenders.
Residents also heard from the incumbent alder, Honda Smith, who is running for reelection, as well as from two-term Board of Education representative incumbent Darnell Goldson and challenger Andrea Downer, as well as incumbent City/Town Clerk Michael Smart and challenger Robert Lee.
Michael Smart won the committee’s endorsement with 22 votes while Lee got three. For the Board of Ed seat Goldson, took the endorsement with 19 votes to Downer’s four.
Abdussabur, Elicker, Goldenberg, and Brennan.
Goldson and Downer.
Candidates spent the time mingling with residents, offering an opening and closing pitch for the campaigns, and answering questions from neighbors ranging from their plans for increasing youth work opportunities and education, housing for the homeless, and investments in the ward including brush clean up, street paving, and improved affordable housing.
Another question asked by a neighbor was what plans Smith and Elicker have for the closed school buildings in the ward.
Those include the West Rock STREAM Academy building and the former Clarence Rogers School building at 199 Wilmot. “Brennan Rogers School has operated out of two buildings since the schools merged some years ago,” the schools spokesperson Justin Harmon told the Independent on Monday. “The student population at the school has dwindled to the point where operations can continue from a single building. The former Rogers building will be closed.”
Iva Johnson reads final vote.
Smith said her idea for West Rock STREAM Academy and Clarence F Rogers Elementary would be to make STREAM into a black box theater that would bring back family friendly gatherings in the neighborhood and offer space for residents to rent out banquet space.
She also said she would support turning the Valley Street buildings into an all-boys school, which was proposed by Rev Boise Kimber, to help neighborhood youth have male mentorship opportunities.
She concluded that the former Clarence Rogers School should be made into another community center. Smith has already spearheaded reviving The Shack community center at 333 Valley St.
Elicker said his administration has no specific plans for either of the two sites but wants to make the buildings into “assets for the community.”
Jordan Cunningham ask candidates about plans for homeless residents.
Springside Avenue resident Cindy DeCarlo asks candidates about plans for cleaning up streets overrun with brush like her own.
Before the final straw poll vote was taken, candidates participated in a lighting question round where Goldson requested that each of the candidates state whether they were in support of an all-boys school coming to Ward 30.
Goldson, Smith, Smart, Downer, Goldenberg, and Abdussabur said they were in support of the proposed all-boys school.
Elicker and Brennan said they would have to see the proposed plans for the school and Lee said he does not support segregated schooling and is instead in support of an additional school open to all youth for mentorship.
Neighbors cast their votes.
It would be nice if at least one of those buildings could be repurposed to house the homeless.