Once upon a time, the fortress that is 200 E. North Avenue was a school for blind children. Then it was Polytechnic Institute. In recent decades, it has been the Dr. Alice G. Pinderhughes Administration Building, headquarters of the Baltimore school sytem.

Now that Andres Alonso is starting to dismantle the building's staff (the number of employees is scheduled to shrink from 1,500 this school year to 1,200 next school year), he wants there to be a school at North Avenue again. No, the central office wouldn't move, but Alonso thinks it would breathe new life into the place if a small school -- maybe even a few classrooms or grades -- could co-exist with all the administrators. During numerous public appearances in the past few weeks, he's floated the idea that schools could come to North Avenue on a rotating basis, perhaps while their permanent facilities are under construction.

City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke was exasperated when she heard Alonso say this during a meeting of the council's education committee last week. Some years back, Clarke and others lobbied to put an annex of Dallas Nicholas and Cecil elementaries at North Avenue so the schools could offer grades six through eight. The councilwoman said school system administrators told her the suggestion was crazy. "I would've done it, Mary Pat," Alonso said.

Could he do it now?

"We don't have enough space," replied a laughing Alonso, who has pledged further cuts to the central office in the future. "It's gonna take a couple of years."