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Community members protest potential closing of Oasis Alternative High School

By Amanda Grifka on May 26, 2011 8:02 pm in Featured, Metro / 3 comments

 
Community members protest potential closing of Oasis Alternative High School
Shawn Ostwald hugs a friend during a protest to keep Oasis Alternative High School open Thursday. "At Oasis, their job is to make sure you get through," said Ostwald, an alumna of the school. (Ken Kadwell/Staff Photographer)

About 20 protesters gathered Thursday evening outside of Mount Pleasant Public Schools’ Central Office at 720 Kinney St.

They hefted signs marked with phrases like “Education is the great equalizer” and “Save Oasis” to show their support for Oasis Alternative High School, 350 S. Isabella Road.

Shawn Ostwald, a 1996 alum of Oasis and Mount Pleasant resident, organized the protest to express her reaction to the recently discussed possibility of closing the school to help balance an ailing MPPS budget.

“This community needs Oasis High School,” she said. “The closing of Oasis will lower the graduation rate and will not help the community at all.”

She said her experience at the school changed her life for the better.

“I was teased and pushed into lockers (at my old high school),” she said. “Oasis was a breath of fresh air.”

Ostwald said she would not have had a shot at college without it.

Jill Elliott, 1999 Oasis alum, said closing Oasis would project the idea that it is okay to throw away kids who need non-traditional education.

“It tells kids they are not worth it,” Elliott said.

Mount Pleasant resident Charlene Merritt said her daughter is at Oasis and if the school closes, homeschooling will be her only option.

Along with the demonstration against the closing of Oasis, petitioners from Clare County were at the protest to collect signatures for the recall of Gov. Rick Snyder.

Farwell resident Jackie Warren Demjohn said the protesters were attempting to collect 1.1 million signatures in 90 days.

“This is a grassroots movement,” she said. “This is what democracy looks like.”

Demjohn said she thinks  Snyder’s policies are affecting everyone, including Oasis.

 

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jill-Elliott/100000798936461 Jill Elliott

    We will keep Fighting I hope for more protesters at the next meeting June 2 at West Intermediate at 7pm. For updating information go to facebook page Rally to Save Oasis. A lot of this stems from recent changes due to budget cuts from Snyder but it can be done and MORE beneficial to keep this school open. I really believe I would not be where I am at in life and educationally if it weren’t for Alternative Education. Tradition education fails to meet the need of all students.

  • Michmediaperson

    To Jill and all the union folks:

    Rick Snyder inherited a mess from Jennifer Granholm, who in eight years cost Michigan 800,000 jobs and billions of dollars of tax revenue from the 800,000 who weren’t working!

    Who elected Jennifer, not once, but twice—-Michigan teachers!  They voted for her…and their union dues helped pay to elect her with advertising, etc.

    Teachers have done a poor job in this state and Snyder is trying to fix it.  A Detroit workforce study showed 47 percent of Detroit residents are functionally illiterate.  That’s the fault of decades of poor teaching by unionized K-12 teachers.

    Rick is working for $1.  He is trying to bring Michigan back from the dead.  By cutting business taxes, businesses can expand, buy equipment, hire people which will bring more tax revenue. 

    This state is broke after 8 years of teacher-backed Granholm.

    Here’s the solution for you teachers.
    1. Stop paying union dues!   The dues go to support Democrat candidates like Granholm who spent 8 years destroying this state.   You can give yourselves a pay raise or donate the money to Oasis.
    2. Cut your pensions!   It’s incredible how lucrative teacher pensions are.  Savings can go to Oasis.
    3. Pay more for your healthcare and other benefits and the savings can go to Oasis.  In the private sector, we’re paying 25 to 35 percent or more for our health insurance.  So, can educators!  Time to get in the real world, teachers!
    4. Pay cuts!  During the Granholm recession, according to the Detroit Free Press, a liberal Democrat newspaper, Michigan higher education administrators and professors were lining their pockets with huge pay raises while we in the private sector were getting laid off or having wages cut 10, 20 percent or more to keep our jobs.  If they won’t cut your pay, then write a check to Oasis.

    Easy solutions, folks.  And you non-teachers who love Obama, Granholm and the Democrats, write a check to Oasis.  Get the unionized, highly-paid CMU faculty to write checks.  They always say they support education.  Let’s see them walk the talk.  Likewise, with the overpaid liberal administrators.  George Ross is good for a check!

    There’s your solution!

    One final comment: “Pushed and shoved into the lockers.”  How come our overpaid unionized school teachers and administrators disciplining the students who are doing this.  Aren’t they enforcing discipline these days or just spending time whining about Rick Snyder and counting their money!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Jill-Elliott/100000798936461 Jill Elliott

    It was a sad meeting but Oasis will remain open. I am sad that some kids are going to have no way to get to school anymore. I think the school board had a lot of members that truly care for the kids and I was proud of the humanity displayed.