Post reporter Scott McCabe on Lake Worth High School: “Project Lake Worth turns diversity into strength”.

This series about Lake Worth High School published in The Palm Beach Post is divided into four parts on this blog, Excerpts #1–4. Below is Excerpt #2. After reading this excerpt scroll back up and click on this link to read Excerpt #1 which will answer a lot of questions, e.g., “Who exactly is Scott McCabe?”

This series about Project Lake Worth is more than just about Lake Worth High School but about all our schools here in this City and pondering the question: “Is it time for Project Lake Worth II?” And what role does City government have in spurring more interest in our schools from the earliest levels through High School?

Consider this: The City of Lake Worth has a number of volunteer advisory boards, e.g., a C-51 Canal Advisory Board, an Electric Utility Advisory Board, a Library Board, a Recreation Advisory Board, and even a Tree Board too.

But guess what this City doesn’t have? A board tasked with coordinating and working with our one charter school, the four public elementary schools, Lake Worth Middle, Lake Worth High School and the private school at Sacred Heart Catholic. And how many other private and faith-based schools are there in this City? Does anyone even know?

The C-51 Canal Advisory Board has only met one single time since being formed in November 2016. Don’t you think it’s time for something like a school advisory board to bring all the schools together in a common forum to discuss problems and the successes as well?

Whilst you ponder that question, two short quotes from the news in the Post:


“When Principal David Cantley canceled Homecoming, ‘not a single mom called to complain.’ ”

and. . .
 

“For what had begun six years earlier as a search for a way to save the high school had flowered into a movement to save the city itself — Project Lake Worth.”

Another quote about Project Lake Worth in
The Palm Beach Post: 

“Despite the rumors of Project Lake Worth’s imminent demise, Joe Egly, its former president, vows to keep it alive — no matter what it takes.”

More from former Post staff writer Scott McCabe datelined:

Sunday, February 14th, 1999.

Click on newspaper clipping from 19 years ago:

 From the timeline. 1990: “Twice-a-year citywide cleanups begin.” 1995: “Residents rally, march
and protest to school board.”

Excerpt #2 from McCabe’s
news article:

  
     “People are wondering, ‘Have we done our job? Yes,’ ” said David Dale, Project Lake Worth’s president. Dale himself says he won’t serve another term after this one runs out in May. No one has lined up to replace him.
     “But there’s so much more to do,” Dale said. “We need fresh blood.”
     Despite the rumors of Project Lake Worth’s imminent demise, Joe Egly, its former president, vows to keep it alive — no matter what it takes.
     He doesn’t want to see the city return to the way things were in 1989, when Lake Worth was at its nadir.*
     Older residents were dying off, and families migrating west. Homes were being taken over by absentee landlords who stuffed them with immigrants afraid to make waves. Downtown storefronts were 70 percent empty then.
     The rot had spread to the schools.
     The 63-year-old Southgrade Elementary was turned into an alternative school for kids with behavior problems. Its twin, Northgrade, was on the verge of closing. Highland Elementary School was dubbed “Portable City.”
     Lake Worth High School was worse. Once packed with about 3,000 kids, enrollment had dwindled to 1,400, many of whom couldn’t speak English.
     And the building, the oldest public high school in the county, was falling apart. When rains weren’t flooding the “Mole Hole,” the school’s north building, stray cats were chasing rats through its science classes.
     When Principal David Cantley canceled Homecoming, “not a single mom called to complain.”
     “Literally, we were dying,” Cantley said.

Check back next week for another excerpt about Lake Worth High School and Project Lake Worth.

As always, Thank You for visiting today and please scroll back up to the first paragraph in this blog post for the link to Excerpt #1.

And one last question, “Why not ask the members of the C-51 Canal Advisory Board if they would consider becoming the City’s School Advisory Board instead?”

Remember. This volunteer board has only met

one single time since November 2016:

In the meantime early this year was the formation of Blueway Trail, Inc., a 501c3. Click on this link to learn more.

*“Nadir”, definition: “the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair.”