The Fight to Save Harrison

Today's print column, delayed by technical difficulty.

Linda Seger first heard it about a month ago.

She was dropping off a contribution from her neighborhood association at Harrison Elementary School, 1310 11th Street NW. A staff member there told her, tearfully, about swirling rumors that the Cedar Rapids School District's enrollment committee is preparing to make a recommendation that Harrison be closed.

“I said, ‘Oh, no, that is not happening,” said Seger, president of the Northwest Neighbors Neighborhood Association. “No, the battle's not over until it's over.”

It wasn't long before Seger and other northwest-siders mobilized. Yard signs, check. Post cards to school leaders are in the mail. Flyers are hot off the press. This past week, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett delivered a big boost by penning a letter to district officials urging them to keep Harrison open.

Committee members and district leaders say this is all premature. No final calls have been made. Closing Harrison is merely a “supposal.” They're either sugarcoating a bitter pill or building our vocabulary. You can guess which.

And, actually, the “save Harrison push” is just in time. Once any official or panel formally sticks a “closed” label on your neighborhood school, you'll play hell getting it removed. The time to act is before that notion develops any adhesive staying power. In the case of Harrison, Seger and her allies had no time to lose.

I know the district, its committee and its board genuinely want to do the right thing. They've studied and mulled piles of numbers. I know Harrison was built in 1929 and needs pricey repairs. And under normal circumstances, I can see how a district might have to make a very tough call on its future.

But nothing this neighborhood has faced in the last three years qualifies as normal circumstances. Harrison did not flood, but most of its neighborhood did. Thanks to blood, sweat, tears, grit and public investment, the northwest side is slowly starting to pull itself up, dust itself off. Closing this school would be a kick in the teeth.

Corbett is right when he argues Harrison's closure would hinder redevelopment already under way and in the future. Harrison is a critical piece of the recovery puzzle, not to mention the neighborhood's identity.

Clearly, this district understands the importance of flood recovery. Its nearly finished 169,000-square-foot administrative headquarters is a testament to bouncing back, big time. Surely the northwest side deserves a future as bright as

all the natural light streaming in through those nice, new administrative windows.