Evening star., 1953-03-15
|Mokeshfts and Delays Tell
Story of Armstrong School
By jones 6. Deone

| By jones 6. Deone
Armstrong High School,
problem the District has put
aside for years, is developing into
a situation that can't be post
poned much longer.
| Twelve years ago school Off
cials first asked funds for new
Armstrong school. They asked
in vain. They have asked six
times since. All they have is
blueprints.
They considered Armstrong
outdated in 1941. Now it is IL
years more so, and other schools
are stealing what remains of its
waning prestige. Technical stu
dents are enrolling at shiny,
modern Spingarn, which isn't a
technical school. Armstrong is
the city's only one for Negroes.
Armstrong teachers can't blame
the students. Spingarn's equip
ment is never, more complete.
Even Junior highs have some
shops better than Armstrong;.
The city's Negro pupils are in
| creasing. Armstrong; are declin-
ing. The schools future useful
ness, at the moment, is a serious
question mark.
Segregation Ruling Awaited.
School officials are we'll aware
of the situation, although their
intentions just now are not clear.
Last year Supt. Hobart M. Corn
ing tentatively tied Armstrong;
fate to that of the city's white
technical high school, Mckinley.
He said Armstrong might be
moved to McKinley's big but two
thirds empty buildings. McKin-
ley students, he thought then,
would go somewhere else.
Since then the Supreme Court
has heard five school race-seg-
regation cases, and a decision on
them now is awaited. If the
court orders segregation ended,
Mckinley and Armstrong both
might well be combined in Nc
Kinley'S building. This would
save much of the SIS million cost
of constructing a brand-new
Armstrong building.
Presumably this is the reason
DR.. Corning has been keeping
mum on the question. But what
ever the courts decision, some
thing drastic must be done about
Armstrong soon.
History of Make Shift.
Armstrong; history for at least
the last dozen years has been a
case of make-shift and make do.
Little has been spent on equip
ment and Improvements, because
naturally nobody wants to pour
money into a building slated to
be abandoned.
The school at First and @
streets NV, is really three
buildings. The Oldest one, in use
So years, was built for a manual
training school. but in days when
modern technical developments
were undreamed of. A three
story addition is more recent;
from the outside it looks, at least,
more like major educational
institution, although it's interior
design is far from modern. The
third building is the antique
Twining School, which formerly
housed elementary pupils and
now takes Armstrong; overflow.
1t is about block away.
From the standpoint even of
ordinary high school facilities,
Armstrong has no frills. Some
old movable furniture has been
replaced in recent years. But
many fixtures are what they
were So years ago. The boys
have tiny, makeshift shower
room for gym use, with uniform
racks improvised from old pipes.
The girls gym "a converted audi
torium), doesn't even have a
shower room. Girls in gym suits
troop down the corridor with
clothes over their arms to stand
in line at three wash basins in
a regular lavatory.
Cracked, Dingy Walls.
Walls in the old building are
cracked and dingy from lack of
paint.
There is no armory. Cadet
rifles are stored in facilities
robbed from the sheet metal
shop. There is no mems teach
erS' room. For a smoke, the
men must descend to the base
ment.
But the technical facilities are
the heart of the school. Some
Of them are deplorable.
Mechanical engineering classes
cram into a one-time auto shop
designed for the days of Model
Ts. Machinery cutters the place,
leaving scant room to operate it.
Sometimes" says the in
structor, James C. Webster, Il
think I'll get some hooks and
hang boys from the ceiling"
Future auto mechanics and
sign painters share the present
auto shop. On one side a wall
made of old steel lockers has
been improvised into a storeroom
for precious tools.
A third floor physics lab boasts
one lab bench and three old
tables, all bearing the scars of
decades of experiments. There