To the editor:


With regard to building a new Jefferson-Houston K-8 school by partnering with a private developer, lets call a spade a spade here.  
    
The singing and dancing salesman Superintendent Morton Sherman has already decided how to use the land and is now meeting with the neighbors to find a way to spin this to the advantage of Alexandria City Public Schools. And the neighbors of Jefferson-Houston are now feigning interest into the academic needs of the students because the new school plan may infringe on the neighborhood green space and traffic flow.   
    
Where were the 200 people this past decade when Jefferson-Houston saw teachers leave in droves and students fail at exceedingly high rates? During that same period, (mostly white) families were able to opt out of sending their children there after the school system changed its distinction to a school for arts and sciences. The result has been a lopsided population of black students, many of which are impoverished. Desegregate Jefferson-Houston or close the school. Either option will solve the long-standing problem there.

Tim Leary
Alexandria