The proposed High School is the Most Walker Unfriendly

J. Mark Finnegan, October 1, 2004

The Ann Arbor Public Schools Administration boasts that the North Maple High School will be green. This is strange, because the location is extremely difficult to walk to. This is mainly because the North Maple location is outside of Ann Arbor City limits, and is surrounded by dirt roads with no sidewalks. There are no sidewalks whatsoever to the north of the proposed site.

The proposed site is located in a lightly populated part of the school district. For example, the houses directly across Maple Road sell for approximately $ 1,000,000 each. The site is located in Wines Elementary District, but is more than two and one-half miles from Wines School, not within reasonable walking distance.

The new high school will have 1,615 students. According to AAPS administration, approximately 450 of these students will come from Huron High School, and approximately 1,150 of these students will come from Pioneer High School. Let’s begin with the 450 students from Huron High School.

Northside Elementary and Logan Elementary

The proposed high school is in the Wines district, and only two of the elementary districts that feed into Huron High School border on the Wines District. These districts are Northside and Logan. Both of these districts are nearly 4 miles from the proposed high school, not walking distance. To make matters worse, the Huron River and the M-14 Freeway separate the new high school from all students in the Northside and Logan Districts, ruling out walking students. Each of the remaining elementary districts that feed into Huron High School are even further from the new high school, and have additional barriers to walking students. Thus, due the far away location of the North Maple site, approximately 28% of the new high school students (all of the students siphoned from Huron High School) can not walk to the new high school.

Wines, Abbot, Haisley and Bach Elementary Districts

Now let’s consider the approximately 1,150 students to be siphoned from the Pioneer District. Only four Elementary Districts that feed into Pioneer border the proposed high school, and these are Wines, Abbot, Haisley and Bach. The proposed high school is in the Wines District, but the majority of Wines students live more than 1.5 miles from the site, not walking distance. Many of the students in the Abbot District are within 1.5 miles, but these students will have to cross the M-14 Freeway with no sidewalks or crossing control devices. And the great majority of students in Haisley District reside more than two and one-half miles from the proposed high school, not walking distance. Finally, all of the students residing in the Bach Elementary District are more than three miles from the proposed high school site, not walking distance.

To sum up, the Wines, Abbot, Haisley and Bach Elementary Districts are the four closest districts to the proposed high school, and they would supply approximately 928 of the 1,150 students that the proposed High school will siphon from Pioneer High. But the great majority of these 928 students are not within walking distance of the North Maple site, and the few students who can walk will have to cross a major freeway with no sidewalks, cross walks, or traffic control devices.

Eberwhite Elementary District

As we stated earlier, the AAPS administration plans that the proposed high school will siphon off approximately 1,150 students from Pioneer High School. But the Wines, Abbot, Haisley and Bach Districts will supply only about 928 students. This means that the proposed high school will have to draw another 222 students from some other elementary district. The next nearest elementary district is Eberwhite. Eberwhite would supply approximately 224 students more to the proposed high school, students who now attend Pioneer High. These students will all be more than three miles from the proposed high school, not within walking distance.

Students Who Now Can Walk to Pioneer Will Soon Be Bused to the Proposed Site

As we have shown above, the Eberwhite and Bach Elementary Districts will supply approximately 409 of the proposed high school students siphoned from Pioneer High School. Currently, the vast majority of these 409 students are within one mile of Pioneer High School, walking distance. But the proposed high school site on North Maple is more than three miles away, and so the 409 students who can now walk to Pioneer High will be bused to the new high school. In this respect, the new "green" high school is actually harming the walkability of Pioneer High School.

Students Who Live Next to the Proposed Site

There are very few students who live next to the proposed North Maple site. The few students who do are almost all white, and live in houses that sell for $500,000 and more. According to AAPS records, the Wines District has the fewest "economically disadvantaged" students and the fewest African-American students. Both University of Michigan Football coach Lloyd Carr and Basketball coach Tommy Amaker live in the neighborhood. Most of the students live in two parent households with much higher than average incomes. In short, the few students who live close to the North Maple site are the most privileged in the entire Ann Arbor School District.

Conclusion

Using AAPS records, we have shown that hardly any of the students who will attend the proposed high school on North Maple will be in walking distance. The proposed site will demand busing many hundreds of students who are currently in walking distance of Pioneer and Huron High Schools. The very few who are in walking distance to the proposed high school will have to cross a major freeway that currently has no sidewalks, cross-walks, or traffic devices. And the very few students who live in the neighborhood are rich, white children from high income families.

Why build a "green" high school that hardly anyone can walk to? And why plow under a nature preserve wetlands site to build a "green" high school? Why build a "green" high school that will necessitate busing several hundred students who can now walk to the existing high schools? North Maple is a bad choice for the new high school, if you care about promoting walking to school.