The anti-Archer School battle that erupted nearly 20 years ago baffled me then, but the current fight to severely curtail Archer’s plans for campus improvements seems maybe even more bewildering.
Back then, community activists were dealing with a great unknown – how the school would impact the community, particularly the surrounding neighbors.
But now, after all these years, we have come to know Archer School as a model neighbor. The long list of predicted horribles never came to pass.
Archer now wants to make some upgrades at the campus and some in the neighborhood are opposed (see front page story), largely on the basis of potential traffic impacts on the area.
Let’s review a few points that often get lost in all the anti-traffic hysteria.
The Eastern Star property could have ended up as a hotel or condo or apartment development. Surely the traffic impacts of any of those uses would be far more severe than a school that buses 80 percent of its students in and out of the school.
So we’re lucky to have a school there instead of the other alternatives that existed at the time.
As part of its original approval process, the Archer School for Girls agreed to pay a lot of money to widen Sunset and improve the traffic lights at the highly congested corner of Barrington and Sunset. So traffic at this location would be far worse today had Archer never made those improvements.
Other schools in the area don’t have to adhere to the same kinds of traffic restrictions Archer faces. Instead of banging on Archer, we should ask Brentwood School and other schools in the area to live up to the same high standards Archer lives with every day.
The gains to be made from tightening standards at other schools surely exceed what little left there is to squeeze out of Archer.
Many Brentwood families send their daughters to Archer. Not only does this reduce car trips to and from more distant schools, but having excellent schools is one of the reasons people are willing to pay so much to live in Brentwood. All homeowners in the area benefit as a result.
And Archer clearly is an excellent school. Brentwood News has, over the years, been lucky to have several Archer girls serve as editorial interns. These fine young ladies are alert, hard-working, highly creative, eager to please – and happy.
There is a certain joy at Archer – which is a pretty rare thing these days.
The other day I attended the opening of the new Saban IDEAlab that will give Archer girls hands-on engineering experience. The girls now have an amazing facility in which they can BUILD things – usually thought of as the province of young men. Archer is playing a leading role in developing a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum for girls.
I invite you to take a close look at the photo, included here, of a 3-D print model idea of a pedestrian bridge that could be built over Sunset and Barrington, connecting several corners.
This model, built by Archer student Courtney Urbancsick (now an engineering major at Stanford) has been deemed by the city as feasible from an engineering point of view.
If the people of Brentwood are really as concerned about traffic as they say they are, maybe they should ask some Archer girls to help come up with actual solutions to the traffic problems.
I have a feeling much progress could be made in very short order – surely more than is produced by generalized complaining.
A classic definition of democracy is doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. How many people, really, are adversely affected by Archer’s presence? The number must be very small.
How many benefit from having this school here in Brentwood? The numbers are big and growing with every incoming class.
If these young ladies go on to make the world a better place – and clearly they have the talent to do just this – does anyone in Brentwood really want to stand in the way?
Let’s learn from the Archer girls; let’s seek out the joy that comes from actual problem solving.
