ABSTRACT
Built in the 1920s, the Johnson Education Complex looms at the intersection of a rotary that feeds into six surrounding streets, lined by two- and three-story houses with hanging pots of flowers and shrub-dotted lawns festooned with occasional shrines to the Virgin Mary. The building reaches back for what looks like a full city block; it is no wonder that five years ago, this behemoth building was split into the three small public schools—the Academy of Future Engineers, the High School for Health Professions, and Equity, a school of approximately 300 students. In front is a fenced-in oval lawn with benches, bushes and two sprawling trees with braided, multiple trunks on each side of the green. This looks like the all-American comprehensive high school with its three-story, red-brick façade, inlaid Greek columns and triangular pediment on the roof. A giant flagpole looms out of the center of the lawn, the flag waving in what seems like slow motion.
