Samantha Rosendale has noticed a word used to describe Central High School — prison.
“People say, ‘I’m going to prison today.’ Or they drive by and say, ‘Look! Prison!’ ” said Samantha, who’s a sophomore.
It bothers her, because she loves the 150-year-old St. Paul school. That’s why she has joined the Transforming Central High School project — to improve the outside of the school to match what supporters say is the beauty within.
The group has raised $600,000 so far and hopes to have the exterior spruced up by the school’s 150th anniversary celebration this fall.
The money will solve aesthetic problems that have plagued the school for years — muddy pathways, washed-out ruts, and exposed roots and bare ground where grass should be.
On June 13, workers will begin landscaping and installing drainage pipes. As the fundraising continues, organizers hope to complete the task with more grass, bedding plants, trees and a sidewalk.
It’s overdue, says volunteer Ann Hobbie.
“I can’t say enough about Central — how well my kids are prepared for college,” Hobbie said. Central boasts a 91 percent graduation rate and a strong International Baccalaureate program.
But appearances matter, too. “We want the outside to reflect what is inside,” Hobbie said
The school is the oldest in the state, and no school has deeper roots in the community. Jennifer Frost Rosendale, Samantha’s mother, said that her grandmother graduated from the high school in 1940.
“It was a beautiful, stately building then,” said Rosendale. “It isn’t anymore.”
That’s because of a remodeling in 1980. Architects designed a facade that was mostly stone and concrete. The small windows were recessed into the building. At the time, the look was considered modern and austere.
Now, it just looks grim.
“It has a foreboding, hard, prisonlike exterior,” Rosendale said.
That is all the more reason, she said, to make sure the grounds around it are as attractive as possible. “You can’t change the architecture, but you can do a lot all around it,” said Rosendale.
HOW IT STARTED
The project began in 2011.
An anonymous neighbor told school officials that a fence on the grounds looked menacing, like razor wire. That person eventually contributed $10,000 to fix the fence. The gift inspired another one from another neighbor, Hobbie said.
The momentum began to build. Parents and neighbors, who had been grumbling about the problem for years, were inspired to take action.
The large-scale fundraising began last fall. The organizers began by asking the students for advice. “Students said the No. 1 thing they wanted was a sidewalk from the school’s front steps to Lexington Avenue,” Hobbie said.
That’s the route many students take when they are dropped off in the morning. The grass has been wiped out, leaving a bare-earth trail nicknamed “the cow path.”
“It is a muddy mess,” Hobbie said.
The fundraisers want to tackle a hidden problem — drainage. Rainwater does not seep into the hardened ground, but instead collects in stagnant pools. “It is really stinky,” Hobbie said.
The group received $400,000 from two water-conservation agencies to control groundwater. “A lot of the money is for very expensive stuff happening underground,” Hobbie said.
Parents also wanted to make the grounds more useful for students.
There are too few places to relax — only a worn-out yard with thinned-out grass and no benches. “They sit on the steps or the curb,” Hobbie said.
Classes meeting outdoors had to deal with bare dirt where grass should be, and tree roots exposed by erosion.
Samantha Rosendale, the sophomore, says the school needs a morale boost.
Too often, she said, media attention has focused on the school’s troubles — such as the controversial May 26 arrest of a teenage intruder at the school. “Central has not been portrayed in the best light,” Samantha said.
That’s why she has worked at fundraisers — for a makeover that will boost student pride.
“All of us would like to walk into a place,” she said, “that feels exciting when you get off the bus.”
HOW TO HELP
You can make a donation to the Transforming Central project here.
