Flint School Closings: Central High and Civic Park Elementary on List of Eight

The verdict is in on school closings in Flint. The Flint Board of Education approved its 2009-10 budget today, and it appears six schools will get the ax at the end of this year:

Central High School
Anderson Elementary
Civic Park Elementary
Garfield Elementary
Merrill Elementary
Stewart Elementary

Coolidge and Wilkins elementaries will close at the end of next year.

Flint Portraits: Bill Stolpin

Artist Bill Stolpin discusses his career and the story behind his evocative prints of Flint landmarks...

I was born and raised in Flint. My dad took the family to Milwaukee in '48 to help set up the AC Spark Plug operation there. We moved back in '53 when I went to Garfield elementary, Emerson Junior High and old Northern High School, where I am currently a Distinguished Alumni with my picture on the wall at the new High School. We lived on Detroit street between Rankin and Taylor streets (across from the Salem Lutheran Church). I graduated from Northern in 1960, and went directly to GMI. Graduated with my BME in 1965. By the way, I earned my Eagle Scout rank while at GMI.

While I was in Junior High, I was making linoleum block Christmas cards. One card in particular had 7 blocks and about 15 colors. I realized, at that time, that I had a knack for printmaking, and have been making images ever since.

I used to draw pencil portraits of my classmates, and took some classes at the old Flint Institute of Arts when it was located behind the Bell Telephone building. My mother was a Cub Scout Denmother, and I was her Den Chief. As a result, I learned many arts and craft skills that my mother taught at her Scout meetings. I was an active member of the IPA (International Platform Association) and helped to arrange and hang their art show in Washington DC for years. One year international lithographer Emil Weddige (then a professor of art at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor) took me under his wing, convincing me to focus on my printmaking skills. It was under his guidance that my first lithograph "...and the Santa Maria" was completed. A print from that edition was subsequently acquired by the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum for their permanent collection of space art along with my screenprint entitled "One Giant Leap." I went back to school and earned an Associate of Fine arts degree from Mott Community college, and was working toward a BFA at Eastern Michigan University when I retired from GM in 1993.

The Flint images started as a project proposed by the late James Anthony. Jim was the fourth member of DAS Print Co. Jim (who died in 1999), Carole Brender, Stefan Davidek and I have been printing in my studio (in Holly) religiously once a week since 1980. Back in '83 he and Stefan suggested that we print a portfolio of four silkscreen prints of Flint. This was similar to a project that they had done back in the ‘60s with John Davies and Bob Knapman. Jim did the old library; Stefan did the Milner arcade; Carole did the Halo Burger on Saginaw St, and I did the Original Flint Coney Island on Saginaw St. The portfolio was an instant success. Individual prints from that portfolio have increased significantly in price and are exceedingly rare, while complete 4-print suites are nearly impossible to find today. As a group, DAS Print Co. produced several additional 4-print suites, while Carole and I continued to make individual Flint building prints. We all have positive memories of Flint in our younger days, and I personally wanted to share those memories with others.

I currently live in Holly, about 20 minutes South of Flint. I recently completed a long stretch on the Board of Trustees for the Greater Flint Arts Council. I am a member of Flint Artists Market (An association of professional artists in Flint) and was a member of the (cooperative) Left Bank Gallery until it finally died after fifty years. I currently teach printmaking at the Flint Institute of Arts.

My work shows up everywhere! Hurley and McLaren hospitals both have our work prominently displayed. A number of professionals (doctors, dentists, attorneys, banks etc) have been acquiring our work for years. The late Frank DeLorenzo (Don Francos Hair Styling) had/has an immense collection of our city prints. They show up in waiting rooms, and other popular public locations like the Sarvis Food Center.

People tell me that the prints act as an immediate icebreaker. Everyone has memories to recount after seeing them. Stefan, Carole and I regularly have our set-ups at the Flint Art Fair in June.

Flint School Closings

Flint's declining population and budget woes are causing some agonizing decisions about school closings. The facilities committee of the Board of Education has come up with various scenarios to ultimately shutter 12-14 schools.

None of this is set in stone, but in all three scenarios the committee recommended closing these elementary schools: Anderson, Coolidge, Freeman, Garfield, Merrill, Pierce, Summerfield and Wilkins.

The Walker Walkers

It's time to celebrate the Flint school with what is easily the best nickname ever — the Walker Walkers. These photos are courtesy of Scott Hiteshew and Jim Holbel, both of whom regularly compete for the Sacred Carp Chalice, a Flint ritual shrouded in mystery and intrigue. But the photos probably originated with Sue Kettler. It's all a little confusing, but the photos sparked a nice little digital reunion of Walkers on Facebook.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the names or details, so feel free to offer updates or corrections.

5th/6th Grade Walker Walkers 1978/1979

First Row (L-R): Scott Hiteshew, David Shulman, Ted Mott, Eric Tillman, Beth Green, Jim Holbel
Second Row: Mr. Malcom Alexander, Kenneth Carter, Susan Kettler, Matt Theodroff, ???, Ben Dennis, ???, ???, Valerie Barrett, Marsha Goldfarb
Third Row: Jen Kells, ???, Corey Cahoon, Todd Chaney, Lisa Phipps, ???, Keith McGee, Michelle Zacks, Alexandra Tyler

The Walker Walkers 6th Grade fieldtrip to Kampsville Archeological Center in Illinois.

In a semi-organized left-to-right order: Todd Schaefer, Jim Holbel, Logan Hansen, Peter Kleinpell, David Shulman, Merry McGhan, Marsha Goldfarb, Carol Flippen, Laura Phillips, Kris Nemeth, Lori Archer, Holly McLeod, Michelle Zacks, Janet Haley, Lester Fykes, Jen Ramsdell
When I ran a postcard of the original Walker School, longtime reader/commenter smrfz ink offered up this brief history, which I've edited for length:

The original Walker School was on the corner of Kearsley and Hunt Lane. Hunt Lane, Ash St., and portions of Manning, Mathews, Forest, and Crapo Pl. were vacated when the Cultural Center was built. Old Walker was demolished and so was much of its attendance area. The Sloan Museum sits where Walker once stood.

The "new" smaller Walker was built in the late '50s or early '60s on the corner of Kearsley and Avon, next to the Administration Building.

When I-475 was excavated even more of Walker's attendance area was lost — Mill St, Albro Place, Newton Place, Vine St. Clark and Oak Elementary had the same issues. Walker survived however. Neighborhood kids were moved to Pierce, while Walker recreated itself once again as a magnet school with citywide enrollment.

Walker's status as a magnet school lasted from about 1975-1989 or so. The gifted program was moved to Garfield and Doyle-Ryder, and the building sold and used for offices.

Jim Holbel says:

As a Civic Park kid, I never really knew anything about Walker until 3rd grade, which for me was the 75/76 school year. I was placed in a 'Gifted' students program at Walker. One day per week, I was bussed to Walker for an enrichment program. In 4th grade I was somewhat dismayed to learn the day before classes started at the end of summer that I was not going to Civic Park with the neighborhood kids, but Walker full time. So for 4th-6th grade, I was in the full-time program, often referred to as the 'upstairs kids', as the upper floor was used by the FT students, and the day-a-week program used the downstairs rooms. I recall some enrichment classes were combined with FT and PT kids.

They must have been trying a lot of (then) experimental concepts. I recall almost everything was self directed, in centers, or in small groups. There was a lot more hands on education. Looking at my kids in school now this is pretty common, but I do remember it being a lot different than life at Civic park. The self-paced nature allowed me to perfect procrastination and develop the ability to create a great deal of work under deadline pressure — an attribute which has paid dividends my whole life.

I also wrote my first computer programs in 1976 because the Walker building was right next door to the administration building where a brand-spanking new PRIME computer resided. We could hook-up teletype terminals by making a phone call to the admin computer and plugging the old plastic handset into a foam receptacle. Instead of a screen, messages were printed on paper. We actually were taught the BASIC language and had programming assignments. I have worked in the IT field for about 23 years now, and each time I share this, no one can believe it happened in a rust-belt town with a fat slob socialist spokesmodel. I have not met anyone colleague of my generation who was offered an earlier start in the field.

Despite the fact that the distance from my Haskell Park neighborhood to Walker is less than four miles, we routinely faced 45-minute or more bus rides because we picked up fistfuls of kids along a route with 10-12 stops. One year I drew dreaded first-picked-up, last-dropped-off position on the route. We did get a brand new bus, #200. On the first day, a kid noticed the '2' looked like a 'Z' and it was then called the Zoo bus from then on. And we worked hard to live up to that name. We had a cool ‘70s dude bus driver named Bill who was not above a little hot rodding. The highlight of the trip was always a 'shortcut' from 5th avenue, cutting through on Forrest St. toward E. Kearsley. It runs right between the Sloan Museum and the Sarvis Center and then up by the courtyard in front of Whiting. There is a left-right chicane-like jog in the road, which rose maybe six feet in a short distance. Taken at even moderate speed, kids in the back of the bus were launched like popcorn in a hot pan. We LOVED it!

As we rose to be upper classmen (i.e. 6th graders), Scott Hiteshew, myself and a few other kids found an old dirty sock in the back of the bus. It became a running joke that no one ever cleaned the bus or removed the sock. One day Scott decided it was a Holy Sock, and we made a big joke over the course of that day's bus ride of constructing a faux religious history around the sock. But see NOW is where the ‘Gifted’ part comes in. We didn’t stop there. Over the course of the next few weeks, we start holding sock worship masses, with ceremonies, rituals, and sermons — the whole nine yards. Well, eventually word of this makes it to some of the 3rd and 4th graders’ parents, and naturally they freak the heck out. We were called into various meetings and lectured for what seemed like hours but in the end suffered no consequences, at least in the eyes of the school. I suspect readers in touch with the various faiths of the world can caution the that the consequences of our actions may yet come.