Almost since the day Simeon Career Academy opened, parents and students on the far south side have been pleading with the school board to shut it down. The board opened the high school in 1964 in an abandoned Kroger warehouse at 82nd and Vincennes. Board officials assured the community the site was temporary–they were going to build a brand-new school soon.
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Well, one year turned into two, then three, then ten. Almost 40 years later the board still hadn’t built a new school. School superintendents, school board presidents, and mayors came and went, each promising to build a new facility. But there were always excuses–other schools needed to be built, promises to other communities had to be kept, the system was broke. “I’ve seen new schools go up all over the city,” football coach Al Scott said back in 2001. “I’m not saying those communities didn’t need those schools. Obviously they did. I’m just saying that we got passed over.”
There were holes in the walls and roof, soiled carpets, water-soaked ceiling tiles, rotting wood, asbestos and pools of standing water in the basement, and the pervasive smell of mold and mildew. Scott estimated that 20 of his colleagues at the school had died of cancer. He himself was recovering from throat cancer. “You wonder about the correlation,” he said.
But Everett and his staff were willing to forgive and forget all the broken promises. “If we can educate in a warehouse I know we can educate in this building,” Everett said. “This is a beautiful building.”
