BUILDING FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY - Kennedy Bibliothek

and to specific measurable educational results. Learning clarifies
our options and provides a framework by which we can act on those
options. Learning is relevant. Learning will produce 'payoffs' in
terms of social and economic improvement. Learning and the
Everywhere School will form the physical and emotional spine of the
new South Arsenal community."
i) Initiation and Planning Process
•129. The South Arsenal Neighbourhood Development Corporation was first
formed in 1965 as a vehicle for citizen participation in the planning
process of their area. In 1968, the Connecticut State Department of
Human Affairs gave SAND a $110 000 grant to plan neighbourhood development
in co-operation with the city's Department of Rehabilitation. SAND used
the money for technical assistance and hired a law firm, an architect/city
planner, and accountants. The first community board, 13 people elected
by 1 000 families (yearly procedure), reflected the racial composition of
the community.
130. With little physical results to show for their work, SAND nevertheless
got an additional $250 000 grant in 1969 to plan the locally-controlled
"Everywhere School". Working with a committee of eight, who later became
SAND's board of directors, Dollard (the architect/city planner) slowly
helped the group to find "its own thing". In trying to get people to
think about different possibilities - not just building the same thing,
only new - Dollard opened to them various avenues that might be followed.
Perhaps the community could be developed as a house, with co-operative
kitchens, central TV lounges, and dormitories for children (this was
rejected, because "we don't live that way in America"). Or it could be
developed as a park (rejected as being "silly"), a factory ("depressing"),
or a university. It had earlier been decided by neighbourhood people that
their main objective was a good education for their children, allowing at
least the children to escape the existing environment. The idea of a
university - where education is a way of life, and where the emphasis is
on getting ahead (intellectually or economically) - would answer this hope.
The "Everywhere School" that developed is like a university, and is the
principle on which the plan pivots. It is a brilliant answer to the ills
of inner-city education, and at the same time, a down-to-earth proposal
that is thoroughly workable.
1:j.1. The "Everywhere School", as might be imagined, is everywhere. The
traditional school has been exploded into a series of teaching, spaces and
facilities spread throughout the neighbourhood. The library serves as a
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