Woodland School Song

I hated junior high. Hated it with the heat of a thousand burning Suns. And yet, I could sing the Woodland Junior High School fight song right now from memory without looking. What the hell, Tim's brain? What the hell!?

"I can hardly wait for the Chipotle or other chains that they will force upon us..."

OMG does someone force you to eat at chain restaurants?!  Wow, thanks Obama.

I attended Woodland when it opened and was a member of the first 'graduating' 9th grade class.  It was sad to see the school close, but much sadder that, once again, a solid Duluth structure will meet the wrecking ball.

America is perhaps the most wasteful country when it comes to spending millions on building a structure, then tearing it down some years later.  This is a shameful waste of money and resources and a huge addition to the gigantic carbon footprint our country makes.

I agree with Jan.  Why is it being torn down?  It's a relatively new building with one of the few indoor pools in town - isn't there some value in that?  I would have thought it would be an asset to the apartments.  I was surprised they wouldn't be using the building for more housing - other schools have been converted successfully.  There would still be plenty of space for retail on the first level.  But, we tear down and build (probably less solid structures) all the time.  It's a waste, but there's no incentive for a developer to rehab a building; it costs a great deal.  Still, it's unfortunate that we are such a throw away society.

Junior High there was the worst time of my entire life, but I don't hold a grudge against the building. It's a shame that they couldn't come up with a use, but I understand they don't necessarily want to go through the trouble to rehab an unattractive post-war block building.

I went to Woodland as part of the first class of 7th graders combined from Central and Woodland. It is likely that a lot of my negative impressions of the building were because of the overcrowding and chaos that went with it, but while a student there I thought the building was, to put it like a 7th grader, crap. I remember the ceiling leaking in multiple classrooms, the layout was horrible, and overall the whole building was incredibly outdated. And that was 10+ years ago. The only nice part of that building was the library, so I can see why no one wants to put in the money to try to fix it up. It has never seemed like one of the solid old schools that has been turned into apartments and look like they'll be around for another hundred years, it looks and felt like it was made cheaply and hasn't stood the test of time well. I just hope that whatever they build in its place will be built with the long term future in mind.

Central will likely suffer the same fate as Woodland in the next 10 years if it is finally sold, assuming that the school board continues to be obstinate about not actually selling it to be used as a school in the next few years. They're not beautiful buildings and are really only considered valuable because of where they're located. I say this as both a Woodland and Central grad.

I was in the same class as wskyline; it was really shocking coming to Woodland after seven years at the much nicer and more modern Lowell. I still remember when Superintendent Julio Almanza and a janitor came into my 8th grade history classroom and had a quiet but animated conversation about our ceiling tiles. The next day we were told that we weren't allowed in that section of the school anymore because of mold in the ceiling.

I was in Woodland many times about 8 years ago and it was nothing special. Old school that you would find torn down by now in many cities. The memories people have there are what is important.

OP, geez... "Hey man, here comes another chain restaurant." Get over yourself. You are probably in your 40s and still trying to be young and hip. Let it go, you'll be scarfing down a Chipotle very soon when you see how much better it is than some "local" slop burrito. Just wait coolio.

Not all old buildings are treasures that need to stand forever. How appealing they are architecturally should enter into it. Watching Denfeld or Old Central meet the wrecking ball would be tragic. Tearing down unused schools like MacArthur and Woodland Middle hardly seems worth lamenting over. While I didn't go to Woodland myself, I would certainly trade all my junior high memories for a tasty burrito.