User talk:Abbadiamare

West Orange Public Schools
Hi Abbadiamare! Thanks for your contributions to the articles regarding West Orange. I have a question about one of the changes you made. You indicated that when Fairmount was relocated, the Board of Education offices "remained on Gaston Street and took over both old school buildings. In the late 1970s, both buildings were demolished and the Board of Education offices were relocated ... The Gaston Street/Fairmount Avenue land parcel became the site of the Fairmount House (now the John P. Renna, Jr.) Senior Citizens Housing Complex. A small portion of the land became an extension of the parking lot for the adjacent Town Hall." (Emphasis added in italics.)

However, my recollection is that only one of the Gaston Street buildings (and perhaps the adjoining gymnasium) were demolished when Fairmount relocated in 1972. The resulting vacant land parcel was used for the senior citizen building. The Board of Education remained in the other Gaston Street building, until its subsequent relocation to Eagle Rock Avenue in the early 1980s. After the Board relocated, the remaining Gaston Street building was demolished and the land turned over to the township. My memory is a little vauge regarding which building (the old "Fairmount Avenue" building or the old "Gaston Street Junior High" building) was demolished in the 1970s and which was demolished in the 1980s.

In the spirit of collaboration, before I change the article again, I wanted to ask you to revisit both versions above and let me know if my recollection seems accurate. If you disagree and are able to include sources for this information, that would be especially helpful. I will look for sources also. Perhaps together we can improve this article to its fullest potential?

Thanks for you contributions! Regards, Accurizer 20:50, 24 April 2006 (UTC)

West Orange Public Schools
Dear Accurizer,

Since this is the first time I am using this discussion thread, it will hopefully go through. I just saw your note after I left a note with my last edit.

I'm not sure why you are thanking me as though you were the host of this page. It was set up long before your last few visits and it never needed to be moved from the West Orange page to be its own article as you have taken it upon yourself to do.

That said, I went all the way through the West Orange schools as did my parents and my grandparents. My uncle was a teacher and department head for fifty years. One of his offices was in the Board of Ed on Gaston Street. (His offices then moved to the new Board of Ed at Eagle Rock. He visited each and every school in the district several times a week.) What I state is not only my recollection but straight from his mouth and corroborated by the other teachers and department heads with whom he still keeps in touch. The Gaston Street and Fairmount Avenue schools were both demolished at the same time.

As for Mountain High and Lincoln Jr. High, my wife and I both went to Mountain. We played sports in the gym and appeared in assemblies on stage in the auditorium. The two schools only shared the auditorium. When Mountain was built, the auditorium was planned as the "link" following the same pattern used with the Gaston Street and Fairmount Avenue schools. The gym belonged to the high school. The Mountain Ram was painted in the center of the basketball court. What seems to be confusing you is the "bridge" between the two buildings which went over the driveway, passed the gym, and on into Lincoln and the auditorium. That is a very minor detail to people elsewhere in the world. Are there other trival details which could be shared about all of the schools? Certainly. But we are not conducting a walking tour.

I am currently doing research for a project about the West Orange schools. I know all of the details. I understand architecture. I am an historian and a professional writer. But the page as it now stands accurately gives everything that is needed to know. It doesn't need any more tweaking. You really are needlessly over-working all of this.

Regards, Abbadiamare


 * Hello again, thank you for taking the time to respond. I am certainly not the host of any page, and I did not mean to imply so. Wikipedia is a collaborative effort by countless volunteer editors. I was thanking you for your contributions as a courtesy and to acknowledge your work. This is a common practice in the Wikipedia community.


 * Fyi, I did not move the page. The article West Orange Public Schools has existed since January 29, 2006 and it was not created by me. (The entire history of every article is available by clicking on the "history" tab at the top of an article's page.) However, the information about the public schools that was contained in the article West Orange, New Jersey was duplicative of the information contained in the article West Orange Public Schools. It is a Wikipedia principle that information should appear in one place, thus it was appropriate to remove the duplicate information in the West Orange article and add a soft redirect to the Public Schools article.


 * I too attended these schools, being the third generation of my family to do so. I also worked for the Board for many years. As a historian and a professional writer you know that memory is not an entirely reliable source, which is why I contacted you in an effort to resolve the inconsistencies that exist between our sources. Since you are engaged in a research project, perhaps you will be able to supplement your writing with verifiable sources. This would help ensure that the information presented by Wikipedia is, in fact, accurate. I'm not convinced this is currently the case. Best of luck in your endeavors.


 * Regards, Accurizer 13:36, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

John Dandola
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