Letter to the editor: New high school will disrupt Beaver Street
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The connectivity of Beaver Street is one of the many moving points of this great town. It provides an ease of access unrivaled in the Greater Pittsburgh region of parking lots and stoplights. The proposed location of the new high school disrupts this simple convenience.
With all of the Quaker Valley Schools located on Beaver, this creates an accessible school commute inherent to our school district. In moving the high school to the proposed site, Quaker Valley becomes reliant on cars and buses. This can be seen as a gift to the high schoolers, who are eager to get behind the wheel and smell the rubber-burned aroma of freedom.
However, the bikers and walkers are left in their dust. They rely on ease of access to get to school. Their eco-friendly commute becomes eliminated with no possible compromise, whereas the current high school location allows for both modes of transportation to be validated. Without the connectivity of the school district, the town takes its first step towards a car central society where our lovely back roads of oak and maple are overgrown with asphalt and vinyl siding.
Sewickley must not lose its small-town vernacular. Before we know it, there will be no difference between Wexford and Sewickley. Our town could soon be another landscape of advertisements for corporations aiming to put our local shops out of business. A network of roads without sidewalks for our kids to roam safely. An endless cycle of carpools to and from practices.
I remember a time not too long ago when I would ride my bike to the morning conditioning sessions with the soccer team. A time when I was too young to drive myself yet had no parents at home to use as a personal taxi. If not for the connective nature of our fierce small school, I would have been an eternal warmer of benches.
I implore this great town to keep voicing your concerns. Continue to educate yourselves on the implications this school has on both our financial life and, equally as important, our community. We must consider all the elements a school imposes, not just our environment and finances. Do we want a school a part of our town or a school apart of our town?
Fisher Hemwall
Sewickley