Demolition of Leon County Schools’ old SAIL, Lincoln buildings begins

Commencing this 7 days, all that’s still left of a historic faculty campus-turned-safety hazard is significant faculty memories.

Weighty equipment commenced demolishing the old SAIL Large University buildings on Macomb Street on Thursday morning.

Previous pupil Robert Alexander Lee termed the demolition “heartbreaking.”

“I will never fail to remember SAIL, the men and women I fulfilled there and how it gave me a further opportunity to graduate,” Lee explained. 

The old properties of SAIL Large College, now found on Jackson Bluff Road, have been sitting empty considering that 2007, stated school board member Rosanne Wood, the former principal of SAIL. 

There ended up cracks in the partitions, and there was a harmful predicament with very high concrete ceilings in the media center and the fitness center, she reported. It may well search like the campus just wants paint, but it requires structural mend.

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“I won’t be able to imagine the sort of cash that would have to be used to improve the college to a safe and sound issue,” she stated.

The Leon County School Board resolved to demolish the developing this spring due to the fact of basic safety considerations. The land will afterwards be marketed, and the $200,000 price of the demolition will be tacked onto the sale.

“I went to work there each individual day for 32 decades and it felt like residence to a lot of of us,” Wooden mentioned in a Fb post. “Nevertheless, it has been left to deteriorate given that 2007, and it is now a disaster waiting around to materialize.”

The structures were being aspect of the original Lincoln High Faculty in Frenchtown in 1959, which later on shut in 1967. 

The structures then grew to become dwelling to the Choice Mastering Center in 1975, which was renamed to the School for Utilized Individualized Studying in 1978. 

Only the previous SAIL Large University buildings will be demolished. The Lincoln Middle, the brick building developed in 1929, is continue to in use by nonprofits and hosts senior citizen and immediately after faculty systems.

Bricks from the previous SAIL Superior University will be saved to develop a memorial commemorating the university campus’ heritage.

“I can truthfully say that I would not have a large college diploma experienced it not been for this college, its lecturers and the aid I obtained as a youth,” said Paula Bacon, a 2001 SAIL graduate. 

Get hold of Ana Goñi-Lessan at [email protected] and observe her on Twitter @goni_lessan.