The following is excerpted from a piece written by a former Walden student as part of a course covering Walden history.

Most of the students were from Park and a lot of kids from Case. Only a few came from Horlick and surprisingly, a large number of students came from St. Catherine's. That was about 20 of the top juniors and seniors and they set up the background of the school. By the middle of August, they still didn't have a building. At the last minute, Superintendent Dick Nelson really liked the idea of Walden and worked with the city and got the McMynn building.

The recruitment of students was not much of a problem but it wasn't until the middle of August that the school district arranged for the use of the building. The McMynn building was a fortunate choice. An old building, previously the home of the University of Wisconsin Racine Extension and bearing the name of the principal of Racine's first high school, it was a building that brought people together. Old and informal, students and staff claimed the building as their own.

The McMynn building was built around a central stairwell. It created a homey feeling, atmosphere of closeness, openness, interdependence. It was a place where education had been happening for years and was spacious enough for the alternative student body of 155 to do their own thing.

There were several forces that caused the move from McMynn to Franklin. There was pressure put on the school to extend the grade offering of Walden, even possibly a junior high school. The elementary schools were desegregated in 1975-76, and this left the Franklin building empty. Also, the city was planning to tear down the McMynn building so housing for the elderly could be built. But adding more grade levels would be a plus to the schools. But if you wanted a creation to remain then you somehow had to institutionalize it without losing the heart of the project in the first place. The school needed to teach more basic skills. Some of the staff agreed with this and some wanted to stick with the old curriculum. But of course, they made up a new curriculum because they needed one really bad. In looking at the McMynn building as compared to the Franklin building, the physical characteristics of the new building could alter the instructional program and also the new building was more traditional.

People are not, and never have been drawn to the Walden program because of the state of the art educational facilities. Students and staff seem quite content to not have many of the things other schools have. We don't have a theater, swimming pool, field house, track, science labs, or a cafeteria that is large enough to accommodate even 1/5th of the students that eat lunch in the building each day. We have a library that is only a little bigger than the Racine Public Library's book mobile. Yet, we have the highest 8th and 10th grade test scores in the District. Walden is the only school in the District that has a no fight policy; children are safe in our house. Student responsibility is the backbone of our program. The District has used Walden's program as an example of how Dr. Hick's RT training plan for discipline should work in other buildings.

The one thing we have that other schools do not, is the downtown Racine neighborhood. Walden has always been an urban school. Walden teaches and learns outside the educational box using the resources this urban environment has to offer. We annually offer elective classes that are taught in collaboration with the Racine Art Museum, Journal Times, Head Start, Heritage Museum, City Hall, Police and Fire Departments - - all in an attempt to Leave No Child Behind. For a more detailed list of all the activities Walden's students and staff employ, see the attached list. We spent part of a school year studying the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, visiting the most important office building in the history of American architecture, the Johnson Administration building which is located two blocks from our school house door. Our location allows us to take walking field trips at no extra cost to the tax payers. Moving to another location makes these educational opportunities more expensive (bussing) and difficult to accomplish. The most critical effect a move will have on the Walden program will be the loss of this relationship with Downtown Racine. We bring life, stability and integration to a challenged neighborhood. Downtown Racine will lose a partnership with 500 young people and have an abandoned building in a very fragile area.

The Franklin building may be closed, but the program will survive. We are told by our principal, Bob Holzem, through the school newsletter, that: The intent is that we simply transplant Walden, along with itís policies, procedures, and our operational beliefs to a better facility. This statement raises a number of questions. Does anyone that works in this school district think that this process will be simple? Will the programs that already exist at the new location be receptive to our operational beliefs? Will staff cuts affect the conjoined programs as the District thins the herd to avoid duplicating educational services? Many questions like these were asked by concerned Walden parents at a meeting last week. The school board members in attendance indicated answers to these questions would be forthcoming.

The Racine Unified School District's educational phrase that pays for the 2003-2004 school year is taken from a Buffalo Springfield song, There is something happening here. Oddly enough, the following line is: What it is ain't exactly clear.

We believe in our program. We believe that because we know our program, we should help decide our fate. We believe we can be part of the solution.