A special kind of homecoming

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Kim Santostefano said that her daughter Marianna, a ninth-grader who sang with the Concert Chorale during the reopening concert, was sad about not being in the high school. “I tell you, she wasn’t happy when she came to the middle school,” said the Inwood resident, who works as a lunch aide at the Number Five School, covers the front desk at the middle school and helps with the after-school program at the Number Two School. “She was very happy when [the high school] was rebuilt.”

A closed high school wasn’t good for the community, according to Penny and Rick Berkowitz of Atlantic Beach, who said that it added fuel to the controversy over the proposed sale of the closed Number Six School. The sale was voted down by district residents in a public referendum.

The Berkowitzes said they were glad that the district held the concert to commemorate the auditorium’s reopening. Their son Brandon, a sophomore, plays trombone in the wind ensemble, which also performed. “It’s nice to see parents come here to support the community,” Rick said.

His wife added, “It’s good for the kids to get back to what they’re used to.”

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