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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 591
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 - 10:39 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Any other former Warren Wds. faculty/staff out there? I was at Shadywood Elementary 1963-1966 and Maplewood Elementary 1966-1969. Robert Tower was superintendent and Ron Marino was the ass't. supt. for elementary...Hank Sienkiewicz was ass't. supt. for secondary.
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Fareastsider
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Username: Fareastsider

Post Number: 688
Registered: 08-2006
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007 - 10:56 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Must have been quite a time to be there that part of Warren was growing very fast then!
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Jerrytimes
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Username: Jerrytimes

Post Number: 73
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 3:44 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow. Where were Shadywood and Maplewood at? I went to Briarwood in the 80's and always hear that there were more elementary schools back in the day. There were only three left when I was going. Briarwood, Westwood, and Pinewood.
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Newport1128
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Username: Newport1128

Post Number: 137
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 3:52 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

The original Shadywood is now Bovenschen (MISD) school, on Frazho between Schoenherr and Hoover, next door to St. Dorothy church. After Warren Woods sold it to the MISD, they re-named part of Hawthorn Junior High Shadywood That same building was also the original Tower High School until the present high school (now Warren Woods Tower H.S.) was built in 1973. Hawthorn is now the Warren Woods Administrative Service Center. Some of those Warren Woods schools have had more names than Elizabeth Taylor.
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Hornist9
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Username: Hornist9

Post Number: 58
Registered: 05-2005
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 3:54 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I am a good friend of Mary Lou Kleist...Mary Lou taught Band and Math in the district.

I play in the Warren Concert Band with her...
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 595
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 4:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Fareastsider: I was in WW for a total of 6 1/2 years...taught 4th grade at Shadywood for 3 1/2 years and then was promoted to principal of the new Maplewood Elementary which was on Gloede. I moved on to a promotion in another district on the west side of the state after three years as principal.

Those were fun and exciting years...the most creative of my career...we were all young, energetic and willing to take risks...and Mr. Tower encouraged us to be as creative as possible. By the second year at Maplewood I was the oldest staff member in the building at age 27...except for the secretary who was 5 years older...the smartassed young teachers called her Menopause M______...or just Mom either of which pissed her off mightily.

It was fun and exciting...the parents were all about the same age as we were...all of the PTA's met on the same night each month...after which all...parents, teachers, administrators...would gather for pizza and plenty of beer.

Mr. Tower...even today its always MR. Tower was in his 40's...behind his back he was "the old man." He had been a B-17 pilot in WW II and had been shot down over Holland...and spent 3 years in a POW camp. He died of leukemia in 1988 when he was only in his late 60's.
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65memories
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Username: 65memories

Post Number: 485
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 8:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Goblue...In 1968-69, I did my student teaching at Warren High School. Richard Wirth, Speech and Drama teacher, was my critic teacher. Harold Blum was his assistant. Wirth had been at Warren High since the 40's and knew every inch of that previous farmland. He would put on two plays a year and they were well attended.He edited a union newsletter called The Harbinger. Sadly, Warren High lost out to suburban sprawl.
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Newport1128
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Username: Newport1128

Post Number: 138
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 9:24 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

As I recall, these are/were the names of the Warren Woods elementary schools:
Alwood - demolished
Briarwood
Charwood - now a medical office building
Maplewood - now a Hmong church
Northwood - Part of Bethesda Christian School(?)
Pinewood
Redwood - demolished
Ridgewood - demolished
Robinwood - now Enterprise high school
Shadywood - now Bovenschen school
Westwood
There were 3 junior highs (grades 7 & 8):
Hawthorn - now the WW Adninistration Building and "Community Center"
Hickory - now a charter school
Holly - now DeLasalle
The high schools were:
Warren Woods H.S. - now WW Middle School
Tower H.S. - now Warren Woods Tower H.S.
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Scooter2k7
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Username: Scooter2k7

Post Number: 19
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 9:29 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I am an alumni of Warren Woods and now a teacher there. We have seen a rise in our enrollment thanks to school of choice. WWT will be Class A again in the very near future. Chippewa Valley is a lot like Warren Woods of the 60s and 70s. CVS is building schools right on top of each other and cannot afford to open them.
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Senior
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Username: Senior

Post Number: 28
Registered: 10-2004
Posted on Saturday, November 17, 2007 - 10:10 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Hey Newport1128,

Don't forget PARKWOOD, which was on Racine, just east of Hoover. My three kids went there when we lived in Warren, from 1964-1973.

Senior
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 601
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Sunday, November 18, 2007 - 7:33 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

65memories: Richard Wirth couldn't have been at Warren Wds High in the 40's...there was no such school in that era...it was a K-8 district until sometime in the late 60's...I don't recall exactly which year the high school was built.

Newport and Senior named all of the schools. I don't remember now which school it was...but the foundation was being put in...dirt was piled up...a couple of kids were playing on the piles and discovered a couple of human skulls...seems that the bulldozers had uncovered a few old farm graves...construction was halted for a while until someone found an old lady who remembered where her grandparents had been buried. The suburban sprawl overtook the entire area.

Scooter2k7: Congratulations. Which elementary school did you attend? Ron Moore who retired as superintendent a year or so ago was the last of the Tower generation. We were good friends.
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Scooter2k7
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Post Number: 20
Registered: 10-2007
Posted on Sunday, November 18, 2007 - 8:11 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Pinewood
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65memories
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Post Number: 487
Registered: 10-2003
Posted on Sunday, November 18, 2007 - 8:35 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Sorry Goblue...I was talking about the original Warren High (not Warren Woods) and you're right...Warren High, which used to be on Arden St (I think it's a community center now) opened in 1952. Wirth and Blum were there from the early days I think. I mentioned Warren High because when I was there staff members seemed to know staff from the other schools.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 605
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Sunday, November 18, 2007 - 10:07 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

65: I thought that's what you meant...there was some crossover communication between districts in the 60's...but not a great deal...even within the Woods there was a separation between elementary and secondary...those of us in elementary considered ourselves to be superior educators because we taught children...as opposed to simply subjects...there was a lot of competition not only across levels but between schools...I suppose it had to do with our youth.

Scooter: I'm trying to remember who was principal of Pinewood in the late '60's...do you recall?

(Message edited by GoBlue on November 18, 2007)
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Ookpik
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Username: Ookpik

Post Number: 349
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Sunday, November 18, 2007 - 11:48 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Wow - Sounds like old home week. I attended Northwood, Holly and Tower! I delivered the "News Through The Woods" newspaper - it kept parents apprised of things going on throughout the district. I think we were paid 50 cents to deliver it. My mother was a substitute teacher in the district and my father was Scout Master of the troop that was based at Northwood.

Ookpik
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Mikeg
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Username: Mikeg

Post Number: 1279
Registered: 12-2005
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 12:54 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

quote:

don't remember now which school it was...but the foundation was being put in...dirt was piled up...a couple of kids were playing on the piles and discovered a couple of human skulls...seems that the bulldozers had uncovered a few old farm graves...construction was halted for a while until someone found an old lady who remembered where her grandparents had been buried.



The school under construction was Briarwood. Wesley Arnold recounts the story in the first half of his Forgotten Cemeteries web page.
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Detroitej72
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Username: Detroitej72

Post Number: 641
Registered: 05-2006
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 1:13 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"All the confusion that's fit to print"

Tower's paper's headline...
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Bongman
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Username: Bongman

Post Number: 1519
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 9:08 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember when Mr. Potato Head would pay a Dr. a $1.00 a kid for sports physicals during the Summer. He would make us drop our pants early so he could hyperventilate while staring at all the young stuff. It must have been a molester's dream.

(Message edited by Bong-Man on November 19, 2007)

(Message edited by Bong-Man on November 19, 2007)
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Bobj
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Username: Bobj

Post Number: 2863
Registered: 11-2003
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 9:11 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bongman

that is a bit out there to post such an accusation about someone, by name.
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Bongman
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Username: Bongman

Post Number: 1520
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 9:16 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

You're right Bob, let me edit that.
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Bongman
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Username: Bongman

Post Number: 1521
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 9:20 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

By the way, I attended Charwood Elementary, which at one time served as not only the local High School, but also St. Edmund's Parrish before it was built on 12 Mile Rd.
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Ookpik
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Username: Ookpik

Post Number: 350
Registered: 01-2007
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 9:46 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bongman is right about said individual. It isn't an accusation or a secret - it was in the Detroit News.

Ookpik
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 606
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 10:59 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mikeg: Mr. Arnold's story sounds like a bit of an exaggeration, at least according to my memory, but I wasn't in the business of researching cemetaries at the time. In the summer and early fall of 1966 I was busy getting Maplewood ready to open.

Oopik: Wish you'd be a little careful about that "old" home week...some of us are a tad touchy about the use of that word! lolol...if yer not careful I'll tell your folks on you!
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Bongman
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Username: Bongman

Post Number: 1524
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 11:17 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Mr. Arnold's story is actually dead-on accurate. Us kids in the area referred to that mound as "Haunted Hill". Others called it Gilligans Island. IT was both an indian burial ground, and later a cemetary used by the Weier family. That farm on Bunert also had a functioning sawmill that ran on steam engines. One of the engines is still sitting on Bunert right down the street from Andrea's Garden. Mr. Weier used to hook up the steam engine and pull it through the neighborhood giving us all hay rides back in the day. At one time the Weier family owned all the land to Hoover.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 608
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 11:29 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bongman: Thanks for the update...like I said it was 41 years ago and I was pretty busy with other issues at the time...I just remembered the kids and a couple of skulls. I never heard about the mound...that would have been interesting to learn more about it at the time.
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Bongman
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Username: Bongman

Post Number: 1525
Registered: 12-2003
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 11:53 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I remember when a Hickory - Holly matchup in sports was like a high school game in the early 70's.

Norbert Samulski was our Principal at Charwood....Roger Sulad at Holly. Mr. Ralph Minella, Ms. Strah, Mrs Nina Mayers, all great elementary teachers I once had. Wish I could remember our Art teacher....who made us kids "smoooooth" out the glue.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 609
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 5:32 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bongman: I knew Bert Samulski (I heard that he died some years back) and Roger Sulad...don't recall the other names though. Your art teacher may have been Diane Kordich...there were obviously others as well...Diane did a great job in that area...the last I knew she was/is an art professor at Northern Michigan U.
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Newport1128
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Username: Newport1128

Post Number: 139
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 7:34 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

GoBlue,
Pete Longo was principal at Pinewood for a number of years. Is that who you were referring to?
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 614
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Monday, November 19, 2007 - 10:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Newport: Yup...you got it...it was Pete Longo...who was a friend to all of us...I couldn't recall which school he had headed...Pete died of a heart attack at least ten years ago...I think it happened at his retirement home in Tennessee. He was a hell of a nice guy...I wouldn't exactly call him "laid back"...but he was calm in the face of stressful situations...he was a little older than the rest of us and provided a real stabilizing part of the leadership of WW...before he came to WW he had been a principal in the Detroit Schools.
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Newport1128
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Username: Newport1128

Post Number: 140
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 - 6:12 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Bongman,
Ralph Minella is alive and well and retired, living in Sterling Heights. There is a fairly active group of Warren Woods retirees, and Ralph is a member. They get together often for lunch.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 632
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Wednesday, November 21, 2007 - 11:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Newport1128: Does that name pertain to the street in Warren that was near the old Shadywood? I recall a family named Nowak that lived near Newport & Frazho...two of their kids were in my classes.
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Newport1128
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Username: Newport1128

Post Number: 142
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 12:22 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Goblue,
No, it's the street where I grew up in Detroit, in the Jefferson-Chalmers area.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 638
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 2:43 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Newport1128: Yup...I know the Detroit street Newport real well...my ex grew up on Newport...about a half a block south of Mack...her house number was 3063...funny the things you remember...but then we started dating when we were about 14-15...both went to Messiah Lutheran at Lakewood and Kercheval. She was S'Eastern '59.
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Jerrytimes
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Username: Jerrytimes

Post Number: 77
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 11:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

HEy Newport. Did Ridgewood just recently get demolished? I still work in the area and a little over a year ago I thought they were starting to renovate it. Then again, I could be wrong, I was just driving by at the time.

The story about the graves at Briarwood are interesting. I grew up on Armanda and we used to joke around about wierd things that we would see in the field there. Also some odd things happened in my buddies basement on Marino.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 645
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Thursday, November 22, 2007 - 11:51 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Geez...all this stuff was going on and I missed it...I was just trying to open a new school. My buddy Bob Piwko was principal at Ridgewood in the '60's...went on to be superintendent in Brooklyn, MI and then one of the burbs on the NW side of Detroit...died of a heart attack about five years ago when he was 61.
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Newport1128
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Username: Newport1128

Post Number: 143
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 9:16 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Jerrytimes,
Ridgewood was torn down this past summer in July or August. Its recent history speaks volumes about the current WW administration.
Two years ago, toward the end of Ron Moore's tenure as superintendent, the plan was to move adult education and adult ed. cosmetology into Ridgewood, maybe even the district's administration offices. They began renovating the building, putting several thousands of dollars into interior partitions, plate glass windows, wiring, etc. Then, when Dr. Livernois became superintendent, all that changed. It was decided that Ridgewood was "beyond repair" and would be demolished. They found a consulting firm which told them (and the local residents)the Ridgewood property would be a great site for single-family homes,between 25 and 30 of them. This was approximately one year ago. So the district removed all the asbestos and tore down the school. Shortly after that, the company that had said they would build homes on the property backed out of the deal. Big surprise in today's dead housing market, especially when they were planning to build $225-250K homes in a neighborhood where the existing homes are selling for $150-160K. Currently the district is trying to sell the property to the City of Warren for a park.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 649
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 3:19 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

What an amazing...and pathetic story of incompetence!
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Jerrytimes
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Username: Jerrytimes

Post Number: 80
Registered: 04-2007
Posted on Friday, November 23, 2007 - 11:59 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Well, I was out of Tower when Livernois came around, but from what I heard, everyone thought he was an idiot.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 662
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 24, 2007 - 10:59 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

He sounds like a pure dumbass...this from someone who made his living in that business...my last slot before I retired six years ago was as the supt. of a 25,000 student, $160M annual budget district.

I think there were about 15-20 of us who were "Tower's boys" who became superintendents...he hired most of us right out of school. Ron Moore was the last of the group. As far as I know all have retired or died now...only four of us are still alive. Interestingly (I guess that's the word) only one of the group has lived to be 70.
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Newport1128
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Username: Newport1128

Post Number: 144
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 24, 2007 - 3:50 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Tom Dobbs is still around, and I believe Marino and Senkiewicz are, too. Don Cornwell is enjoying retirement. Not sure about Myron Willard. Tom Weir works part-time as a counselor at Enterprise H.S. Helluva nice guy.
My opinion of Livernois is that he's an intelligent person, but way too cocky and sure of himself. He reminds me a lot of Richard Nixon. I haven't met one teacher or other non-administrative employee who trusts him. They've all heard him say one thing and do the opposite. His motto seems to be, "I've made up my mind. Don't confuse me with the facts." He's surrounded himself with administrators who are yes-men (and women), a lot like Nixon did. The school board has become a rubber stamp for whatever "Dr. Bob" wants.
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Goblue
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Username: Goblue

Post Number: 671
Registered: 03-2007
Posted on Saturday, November 24, 2007 - 6:30 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Newp: Thanks for the updates. Forgot about Dobbs...last I heard some years ago he was working in a private school maybe in Detroit. Marino is in Ft. Myers...saw him about a month ago. Sienkiewicz died maybe five years ago...heard recently that his wife also died just recently. Chip Weber is in Colorado. Didn't know Weir well. I think Willard died. Surprised and pleased to hear that Don Cornwall is well...he has to be pushing 80.

Intelligence doesn't always get you there...if "Dr. Bob's" got nothing but head nodders around him he'll get into big shit trouble in time. Really sorry to hear this...the Woods was near the top of the Detroit area districts at one point. I had a choice between GP, Livonia and the Woods when I graduated...took the Woods for $500 less because of Mr. T. and the chance to be creative.

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