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Old, new still Gibbs
By JON WILSON, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- A little after 10 o'clock this morning, school officials will shovel ceremonial earth, turning over a new era for one of the city's revered institutions. Groundbreaking for the new Gibbs High School, a touchstone for generations of African-American students, starts at 10 a.m. The public is invited to the southwest corner of the 850 34th St. S campus. "It's special for us," said Barbara C. Shorter, Gibbs principal since 1991. The band will play and the school's gospel choir will sing The Lord Our God Alone Is Strong. Superintendent Howard Hinesley, School Board members and St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker are expected to attend. Ajax Construction Co., the builder, will supply the shovels. Among special guests will be Ella Mary Holmes, a Gibbs graduate from the 1930s, just a few years after the school opened in 1927. She was Shorter's fifth-grade teacher at the old Jordan Elementary, another all-black school about nine blocks east of the high school. The festivities herald the official start of the largest and most expensive school-building project Pinellas County ever has tackled. The architect is St. Petersburg's Renker Eich Parks firm, which has designed several county schools. The design preserves some of the old school's theme of brick and arches, said partner Paul Renker, and is intended to suggest a Florida style of architecture. All but one building will be demolished. New construction will take up 300,000 square feet, resulting in a complete update of the 76-year-old school, in effect bringing it into the 21st century. "I hesitate to use 'state-of-the-art' because some people say, 'Well, you must be wasting my money,' " said Tony Rivas, the school district's facilities director. "Everything will be today's standards. . . . It's what's necessary and good," Rivas said. Total cost runs about $49.7-million, which includes furniture and equipment for the traditional school and Gibbs' two magnet programs, Pinellas County Center for the Arts and the Business, Economic, Technology Academy. Construction alone is about $41-million. The project will take more than two years to complete. "Fall of 2005, the new school will be ready in totality," Rivas said. Some students may be able to use some new classrooms during school year 2004-2005, he said. That means today's sophomores may use some of the new school, and today's freshmen will get the full show when they start their senior year. Nearly 2,200 pupils attend Gibbs, Shorter said, putting it among the county's larger high schools. Some preliminary work has begun. The old weight room and concession stand are being knocked down, for example. But most demolition will wait until the new buildings are up and occupied. Construction will start on the site's southern end, leaving the current school intact on the northern side for the time being. The athletic fields will be phased in nearer the Pinellas Trail, where many of the current buildings stand. Athletic teams are expected to have to play elsewhere for a while. A few of the new school's amenities: -- Updated classrooms, computers, cafeteria, media center, lighting and air conditioning systems. "We certainly are going to be state-of-the art in computers," said Shorter, the principal. -- 2,553 student stations, which translates to literal room for about 2,435 students. It means Gibbs will have room to accommodate an expected increase in student population during the next few years. -- All classes will be situated on one campus. Currently, the BETA magnet program is held across the street at Pinellas Technical Education Center. -- The football field moves from a north-south configuration on the southern side of the campus to an east-west setup on the north side, bordering a commercial area rather than a residential neighborhood. -- A two-story theater with room for a "flyloft" containing sets for dramatic productions. -- A baseball field. Currently, the team has to play home games elsewhere. -- Covered walkways. Now, "it poses a problem for us if it rains when we're changing classes," Shorter said. -- An attractive, landscaped "quadrangle," or courtyard. Just one building from the old campus is being retained, the blue-roofed structure known as Building 16, built during the 1980s. It contains studios, floors, mirrored walls and a "black box theater" for small productions. The original Gibbs High School building will be knocked down. Its demise does not sit well with many who attended before 1971, when Pinellas school integration began as a matter of consistent policy. During the Jim Crow era, Gibbs students had to make do with second-hand equipment and books with pages torn out. "I still remember how we had only five Bunsen burners for the science lab," said Rosalie Peck, a 1946 graduate. Named for Jonathan C. Gibbs, Florida's African-American superintendent of public instruction and later secretary of state during Reconstruction, the school became a community cornerstone. Its teachers, musical groups and sports teams won wide respect, even as they struggled under segregation. "It has a place in my heart most dear," Peck said. "When you speak of the best years of our lives, my mind goes to high school, even with the hardship and all of it they put on us. It still qualifies as the best period of our lives for what it was and for the teachers we had." Young black people, she said, "are not being steeped in history the way they should be, and this way there will be nothing left." Enduring community lore says the school was built for a white neighborhood that never materialized after the 1920s boom failed. Told by white officials they could have the school if they wanted it, African-American teachers and pupils conducted a special march from Davis Academy 2 miles away to take possession of the eight-classroom school. Before Gibbs, black students had to leave St. Petersburg for a complete high school education. Shorter, a 1953 Gibbs graduate who will retire in June, said she had reservations about demolition of the old building. "I was going to stand in the door and not let them tear it down," she said. But a history of problems with bricks, mortar, roof and windows eventually persuaded her that the old building had seen better days. "I think it was poorly designed and poorly built. Then it wasn't maintained over the years," Shorter said. A committee is exploring ways to retain reminders of the heritage, she said. A scale model of the original building and preservation of photos, paintings, trophies and banners are among suggestions. Shorter said she started a scholarship fund in the name of the late Freddie Dyles, a highly successful basketball coach at Gibbs. She also would like to name the new gymnasium for Dyles, and she suggests establishing an athletic hall of fame like those at other county high schools. Like Shorter, other Gibbs graduates have come to accept the idea of a new school. Lounell Britt, executive director of the James Sanderlin Family Center, gestured toward the new James B. Sanderlin Elementary School across 22nd Avenue S. "If they put anything out there (at Gibbs) like they put across the street, it can't be anything but an asset," Britt said.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
