It was the first million-dollar high school in the United States, built in the shape of a triangle, an imposing limestone structure that has dominated the Oakland intersection of Centre Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard since 1916.

	Martha Rial , Post-Gazette Schenley High School in Oakland will be closed and its students shifted to Reizenstein in East Liberty as part of a plan unveiled yesterday by Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt. Click photo for larger image.

Andy Warhol was a Schenley graduate. So were jazz musicians George Benson, Stanley Turrentine, Walt Harper and Ray Brown, singer Vivian Reed, Washington Redskins running back Larry Brown and Nobel Prize-winning physicist Clifford Schull.

Harvard Law School's first black tenured professor, Derrick Bell, attended Schenley. Alumni also include a Who's Who of Pittsburgh: Allegheny County Councilman Bill Robinson, Common Pleas Judge Cheryl Allen, wrestler Bruno Sammartino, and the late lawyer and civil rights leader Byrd Brown.

Schenley itself has been a popular school. Its 1,240-student body is relatively near capacity. But fixing the roof and dealing with asbestos and other issues could cost up to $85 million.

Under the "right-sizing" plan submitted yesterday by city schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt, the school's inhabitants would migrate to Reizenstein Middle School in Shadyside, there to establish a new iteration of Schenley High in 2007.

Left behind would be the graceful, storied building and its nine decades of history -- school dances, basketball championships, student strikes and protests, standout jazz ensembles and award-winning musicals, the sometimes painful transformation into one of Pittsburgh's most prestigious and successfully integrated schools through magnet programs. And there was a day in May 1985, when a student famously jumped out a third-story window, flipped twice in the air, fell 50 feet into a row of hedges, got up and walked away.

"My first reaction was, they can't close Schenley High School, that's my school -- and I'm 60 years old," said Tim Stevens, former president of the Pittsburgh branch of the NAACP and member of the class of '63.

"People tend to get emotional and nostalgic about their schools," he said. "But if what the superintendent says is true about the cost of keeping it open, then we all have to step back and think about what's in the best interest of the district and the students."

Veteran Schenley teacher Roger Babusci has directed every one of Schenley's fabled spring musicals for 35 years, bringing home a raft of Gene Kelly Awards. He noted that just last year, the district refurbished the auditorium and inaugurated a $200,000 sound system.

"We had heard rumors about the asbestos, but closing the building really caught us off guard," he said. "We were told they're going to take a year renovating Reizenstein into a high school with a new auditorium. Depending on what they build, I'm hoping everything will simply transfer."

Everything but him, that is.

"I always used to joke that when I retired they'd close the building. Now it looks like that may happen," he said.

For six years, in the 1980s under Superintendent Richard Wallace, every high school teacher in the district cycled though Schenley's Teacher Center, an innovative program that helped instructors apply the latest research and techniques in their classrooms. It also drew up to 3,000 visitors from around the world, and was touted by Education Secretary William Bennett.

During that period, Schenley went from the second-lowest achieving school to the second-highest, after Allderdice in Squirrel Hill.

"The teachers at Schenley were using the practices we talked about," said Judy Johnston, who directed the Teacher Center.

Since 1983, Schenley has housed the district's International Baccalaureate Program of college-level courses.

"That was like playing for an all-star team when the Teacher Center and the magnet started there," said Paul Moessinger, retired history department chairman. "It was kind of a mini-United Nations. You had a mixture of kids, black and white, from such interesting backgrounds. It demonstrated the ability to have an integrated school that worked."

Schenley has figured prominently in City League athletics over the years. In the 1960s and '70s, it had one of the best boys' basketball programs in the state. The Spartans won five state championships from 1966 to 1978 and a number of their players went on to stardom after high school.

Kenny Durrett, class of '67, is a Pittsburgh high school basketball legend who led Schenley to the 1966 state title. His number is retired at La Salle University. Mr. Durrett was the No. 4 pick in the 1971 NBA draft.

Maurice Lucas led Schenley to the 1971 state title and went on to play 14 seasons of professional basketball, including 12 in the NBA. He scored more than 14,000 career points and won an NBA title with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1977.

This year's Schenley basketball team is expected to be one of the best in Western Pennsylvania. DeJuan Blair, a 6-foot-7 center, is considered one of the best juniors in the state.

Schenley has some football tradition also. Six Schenley graduates, including Larry Brown, went on to play in the NFL. Francis Peay was an offensive lineman who played nine seasons (1966-74) in the NFL and later became the head coach at Northwestern. Henry "Model T" Ford was a standout running back in the 1950s and also played in the NFL. And Darnell Dinkins, who played at Schenley in the early 1990s, is now a tight end with the Baltimore Ravens.

Martha Harty, mother of Schenley High School 10th-grader Katie Scheines, said she regrets seeing a school with so much history shut its doors for good. But the district has been in so much turmoil she wants to support the closing plan if it's going to help turn things around.

"Lots of times kids hate their school, but the ones at Schenley really like it," Ms. Harty said. "I don't know how much of that is because of the people or the building. I wonder if Schenley will maintain the feel and culture it has now."

Lynda Wrenn's son, Jake Stockman, is in seventh grade at Frick International Studies Academy and would have attended Schenley in a couple of years. She said he's excited about going to Reizenstein instead.

"They have a gorgeous pool, a nice gym and a big cafeteria with a stage," Mrs. Wrenn said. " I feel sorry for the schools that are closing, but it's time to bite the bullet, and from what I've heard of the plan, it makes sense."