How did it happen? The old/new Southside High School
The Star Gazette headline on October 23, 1974 read, “Students, teachers, parents agree, SHS is a ‘sick’ school.” Almost a year later on October 15, 1975, the newspaper reported that the school board had been asked to “OK” an environmental study. The first article, written , refers to the outrage expressed at a school board meeting attended by approximately 800 people over conditions in the original Southside High School building (located at 425 Pennsylvania Ave.). The second article reports the call for a “complete environmental study” of the Elmira Free Academy area before further action was taken to construct a communitywide recreational facility behind the high school.
The decision made in 1977 to purchase property and build a new high school (the current Elmira High School) on a former industrial site was the outcome of the controversy associated with the articles mentioned. According to Star Gazette columnist Garth Wade in his Saturday notebook, January 8, 1977, the new school was “needed if Southside residents are to get a high school equal to the Northside’s Free Academy.” He noted that the new school would be “a bargain to sorely pressed local taxpayers” and the site “partially covered by worthless buildings would be improved.”
Wade’s column reflected the thinking at the time. According to the newspaper of December 30, 1976, Elmira School Board members and administration met with members of the Elmira, Chemung County and Southport planning boards to discuss the site. Also attending were the Elmira City Manager Joe Sartori , Jack Hill, Director of Southern Tier Economic Growth, and the Deputy Director of Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Board. Hill noted that it was a prime industrial site, he said, “I don’t raise this as an objection, I merely raise it as an observation.” The Schools Superintendent, Dr. Paul R. Zaccarine, stated that, “the positive aspect of having that building put up there does outweigh the negative aspect of using that particular area as an industrial site.”
The controversy which resulted in the building of a new high school was fomented by the decision made in September, 1974 by the Elmira School Board to construct a communitywide recreational facility in the back of the Elmira Free Academy. The plan called for construction of four new tennis courts, three baseball softball fields, two practice football and soccer fields, a track for field events, a driver education range, an indoor swimming pool and a parking lot.
Southsiders were very upset by the decision. A protest march was organized by William S. Ward, president of the Southside Student Council, “to get some answers on what type of expansion program was planned for schools south of the Chemung River.” In response to the protest, the October school board meeting for that evening was relocated to the Southside auditorium.
The audience was large and excited. In the middle of the meeting the fire alarm went off. The 800 people evacuated the building with fire engines arriving. It was a false alarm and they returned within ten minutes. School Board President Ronald Kintz said, “I knew this was going to be a hot meeting, but not this hot.” During the meeting conditions at Southside were listed: only two restrooms on each floor with broken toilets and sinks, students seated on vents in some rooms because of overcrowding, an inadequate heating system with temperatures varying between 60 and 92 degrees in various rooms, interior rooms with no windows, auditorium dressing rooms being used as faculty rooms and a muddy unpaved parking lot. William J. Caroscio, a math teacher stated that, “this building is no longer adequate to carry on a quality education on the Southside of the city.” Lucinda Smith, a senior, said, “Students should get a proper education and should know where they’re going before anybody gets a swimming pool.”
To the surprise of the audience, school board member John Beecher proposed the building of a new school as a solution to the problems at Southside. The audience applauded when he said he was convinced that district could afford a new school. He further mentioned that he had investigated a number of locations and felt they would need at least 25 acres. A number of board members were supportive.
While many in the audience were thrilled, Fifth District City Councilman John J. Keefe III was stunned. In the capital projects for the school district there had been plans for the expansion of athletic fields and a swimming pool for Southside. The district had agreed to purchase 8.33 acres of land near the school from the Elmira Urban Renewal Agency. Keefe explained at a follow up meeting, “we (the city) went out and disrupted a tremendous amount of lives, took a lot of properties off the tax roll, to do this. We felt you (school board) were committed.” Forty years later he stills gets emotional when discussing this, as he personally called on people and talked about them selling their homes. In addition there were important questions about the location of the arterial (Clemens Center Parkway) associated with renovation of Southside.
With the announcement of the possibility of a new school, the district had three options to solve the dilemma of overcrowding, quality of education and athletic facilities. Either do the work at the old school, redevelop the property at Broadway Jr. High School or the new school.
The district was faced with a paradox as they were closing elementary schools while considering the possibility of building a new school.
Questions of location, cost, state and federal aid and taxes made the decision making a challenge. In November, 1975 Superintendent Zaccarine favored renovations and additions at the old Southside High School estimated to cost $7.6 million. At that time the estimated cost of a new building was $13.9 million. A little over a year later, in December of 1976, Zaccarine was recommending a new school as the top priority. By this time he was concerned that renovation and adding to the overcrowded building would add more local cost. Board President John Beecher, who had originally proposed a new school stated that a new facility designed to last 50 or 60 years would save the district money in the long run.
Two months later, on Tuesday, February 22, 1977 the Elmira School Board voted unanimously to purchase 28.3 acres of land for the construction of a new Southside High School. They had exercised an option obtained from the Westinghouse Electric Corp. which owned the land. Westinghouse had been asking $400,000 but sold the property to the district for $80,000.
The decision to purchase the property was a complete surprise to the city according to former City Manager Joe Sartori. At the school board meeting in November of 1976 Councilman Keefe was one of two to oppose the district seeking federal aid for the project. He once again pointed out that more than 30 properties had been purchased and that people had been put through “hell.”
The Preliminary Site Assessment for the Remington Rand Plant site prepared by the Unisys Corporation, the company which has liability for the property, prepared in July 1988, provides in interesting history of the site on South Main St. The property purchased by the Elmira City School District for the new high school had been an industrial site since 1882 when 20 acres of land were donated by John Arnot to encourage business development in Elmira. The Payne Engine and Boiler works was the first business to locate there. From 1909-1935 the Morrow Company and the Willys-Morrow Company occupied the site. From 1935-37 the Elmira Precision Tool Company was there to be replaced by the Remington Rand which lasted until 1972. In 1977, the Elmira City School District took possession of the northern part of the property.
While there were questions and comments on the street about the site and its history, in all of the public discussion about building a new school on a site which had been used by industry for nearly 100 years, the risk of hazardous waste and pollution which might jeopardize students and faculty was never raised as an issue. Indeed there was no discussion about the exposure to such waste by neighbors of the property.
In 1952, the State Department of Health informed the Remington Rand that toxic wastes were being discharged to the Chemung River. In January 1954, a large fish kill resulting from cyanide contamination on the river resulting from nickel plating at the plant was noted. Further contamination was noted in 1958. In 1965, Sperry Rand Corporation was notified that elevated concentration of zinc and cyanide were noted in Miller Creek (flows into Miller’s Pond). By 1967 Sperry Rand had failed to meet abatement schedules to treat contamination problems.
Context and time are important for us to appreciate as we try to understand our history. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring was published in 1962. An outgrowth of her call for environmental protection was the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in December of 1970
Indeed the first Earth Day was earlier that year in April. The matter of exposure to hazardous waste with the construction of a new school in 1977 was a nonissue.
In 2018, we face serious decisions about the future of the Elmira High School site.
