Group sees Sumner School as rough jewel

Group envisions turning historic school into center for multiple uses

By Tim Hrenchir

The Capital-Journal

Published Sunday, July 22, 2007

In 1954, Sumner School helped make history as part of the court case that integrated the nation's schools.

Fifty-three years later, a group of Topekans hopes to again make that building a force for unity.

Anthony S. Bush / The Capital-Journal

Dr. Betty Horton, left, and Sandra Lassiter, principles in Community First Inc., have visionary plans for the former Sumner School, background. They want to turn the building into a multipurpose center with a school and facilities for senior citizens, a health clinic, a music and arts academy, and more.

HOW TO GIVE

Community First Inc. is mounting a capital campaign to raise $5 million to restore the former Sumner School building, 330 S.W. Western Ave., into a multipurpose center that would include a school. Donations may be mailed to Community First Inc., 1112 S.E. 10th, Topeka, Kan. 66607. For more information, call Sandra Lassiter at (785) 221-5694.

CENTER OF CONTROVERSY

Sandra Lassiter, a former principal in Topeka Unified School District 501, alleged she was treated unfairly by district administrators who eventually forced her early retirement in fall 2003. Lassiter filed a lawsuit against the district, which was dismissed in December 2004. Lassiter and USD 501 the following month reached a settlement that ended litigation, required no payment from the district and acknowledged Lassiter was never found guilty of criminal wrongdoing. USD 501 board members last January rejected a request by Community First, a group for which she is executive director, to form a charter school.

Lassiter acknowledged Thursday she has been involved in controversy but says the same was true of Charles Sumner, the man for whom Sumner School was named. Sumner was an anti-slavery leader who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate. He was unable to attend Senate hearings for three years while recovering from injuries suffered in 1857 when a congressman from South Carolina beat him using a cane in the Senate chambers.

Partners with Community First Inc. are asking the city to sell the former school building at 330 S.W. Western Ave. to their nonprofit group so they can turn it into a multipurpose center, which would include a school.

"This would benefit the entire community, from the womb to the tomb," said Sandra Lassiter, Community First's executive director and a former principal for Topeka Unified School District 501.

Community First partners say they have made several presentations recently to potential donors for their project to restore and reuse the school. Lassiter, Dr. Betty Horton, Deborah Edwards, Aaron Edwards, Dina Bailey and Alice Wyatt met Thursday with a reporter and photographer from The Topeka Capital-Journal outside the former Sumner School, where many of the windows were boarded up and others were broken.

Aaron Edwards acknowledged the 71-year-old concrete building looks "aesthetically rough" but said it remains structurally sound.

"This building is primed to go,' he said.

A storied past

The 32,500-square-foot Sumner School, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was linked to the historic Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case decided by the Supreme Court in 1954.

"This historic building is to integration what the Statue of Liberty is to immigration," said Deborah Edwards.

USD 501 closed the school as part of a desegregation plan in 1996.

The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library bought the building for $40,000 the following year. The library in 2002 sold the school for $45,000 to the city, with about $24,000 of the purchase price being paid through a state historic preservation grant. The city has since been working to find someone to use the building.

The city received offers this year from two entities hoping to buy it. One was Community First, which for the past eight years has operated the Juan "Poppy" Abbott Community Center at 1112 S.E. 10th through a partnership with the city.

Lassiter said Thursday that Community First was kicking off a capital campaign targeted at raising $5 million to restore Sumner School into a community hub. She said the group plans this week to establish a fund to accept donations at the Topeka Community Foundation. Lassiter said donations of any amount will be accepted.

"We want thousands and thousands of Topekans and Kansans to know they've had a part in restoring this building and this neighborhood," she said.

Horton, a USD 501 board member who is president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Association of Public Charter Schools, said acquiring the $5 million would put the group in a good position to receive an additional $10 million to $15 million in government grants to fix up the building, establish the school and community center, and keep them going.

But first, Community First needs five votes from the Topeka City Council.

A setback

In a memorandum provided this past week to council members and city manager Norton Bonaparte, city staff members recommended the council instead vote to sell the building to a Topeka-based development group that hopes to convert it into housing for the elderly and to build townhomes nearby.

Deputy city manager Randy Speaker was among five staff members who proposed in the memo that the city contract with Pioneer Group Inc. to buy and use the building.

Speaker said Pioneer Group offered the city a $25,000 purchase price secured by a $10,000 nonrefundable deposit of earnest money, compared to Community First's offer of a $22,000 purchase price secured by a $500 nonrefundable deposit of earnest money.

Speaker said city staff members support the uses of the building proposed by both Pioneer Group and Community First but advocate selling the former school to Pioneer Group because it apparently has better financial backing and a proven track record of developing housing projects of the type it plans to make out of Sumner School.

The memo indicated Pioneer Group plans to completely restore the building in 12 months with an investment of $7.2 million. It said Community First proposed a three-phase plan in which "no firm timeline" was submitted.

Lassiter said late Friday the decision by the city staff to recommend Pioneer Group wouldn't deter Community First from pursuing its goal.

"We definitely are moving forward because we feel we have the public support and we still have a vote to go before the city council," she said.

Charter school

Another reason the city staff cited for not choosing Community First was that its proposal didn't say if it intends to start a charter school or a private, nonreligious school, and it didn't sufficiently explain how the school would be financed.

Last January, USD 501 board members voted down Community First's proposal to form a charter school. Horton, who recently joined the USD 501 board after being elected to that body, said last week it remained unclear whether Community First could obtain school board approval to put a charter school in the building.

But if Community First buys the building and can't put a charter school there, Horton said, it will still put in a private, nonreligious school for students from low-income families and students at risk of failing and dropping out.

"If you're going to throw kids away, throw them my way," Lassiter said.

She said the community could expect dynamic results from the school, which would be "safer, saner and smaller" than those currently available.

Lassiter said the proposed "Sumner School Center" also would offer community services for senior citizens, a Topeka Music and Arts Academy, a health clinic, mental health services, social services, a library/media center, a small museum and a Topeka Police Department community office.

"Every household in that neighborhood will have a use for some of the services provided by a program at Sumner School," Lassiter said.

City staff members acknowledged in last week's memo that Community First's proposed re-use of the Sumner School property matches up "very well" with the stated re-use goals of a neighborhood plan the city had adopted for the area.

"The initial goal of the city was to turn Sumner into a community center" the memo noted.

It also stated that many people signed an informal petition in support of Community First, which has successfully operated the Abbott Center for the past eight years using an annual city subsidy of $185,000.

The city staff recommended that if the city and Pioneer Group fail to close a deal, the city enter into negotiations with Community First.

Staff members plan to report their findings to the council when it meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in its chambers at 214 S.E. 8th.

Tim Hrenchir can be reached at (785) 295-1184 or tim.hrenchir@cjonline.com.