3/2/06
Watching
Out For “Plan C”
Slowly, the still-new majority of the Onteora Central School
board is letting a dangerous cat out of the bag. At a recent
school board meeting, it was requested that in addition to
redistricting “Plan A”, which calls for the creation
of a Middle School within the current Junior/Senior High School
facility and the maintenance of three elementary schools Onteora-wise,
a “Plan C” -- earlier rejected by consultants
-- should also be looked into, whereby the district will increase
the size of its planned Middle School while shrinking its
elementary schools from three to two.
This would be an interesting avenue for discussion were it
to be opened up to all configurations, including a seemingly
logical choice to make the Bennett School the location for
such a planned Middle School, adjacent to but separate from
the currently centralized Junior and Senior High School campuses
district students will be moving on to in time. Which would
then entail elementary schools in Phoenicia and the Woodstock/West
Hurley areas… drawing school age children to the region’s
edges, as it were, for their early education, and then to
the district’s center for the core seven years of 5-12
learning.
But we doubt such talk will ever surface because of the current
political nature of the district, which seems a bit frightened
by any possible decisions, or even talk, that might rattle
the nerves of the Olive voting constituency at its center.
Which is a shame… to bring up an idea but hamstring
it from the beginning. And more, to follow months of intense
public discussion with what feels like a whim of a detour,
called for via the summoning of “economics” as
a reasoning hammer, but in a fashion that feels dismissive
of not only the diverse constituencies of the wide Onteora
community, but also its individual neighborhoods.
Whatever lies ahead for our massive school district, the state’s
second largest, geographically, is going to be difficult.
Closing another school, no matter where, is going to be hard…
especially if one of the choices ends up being one of our
schools located in an actual community of streets and stores,
and not just a roadside configuration of businesses we’ve
become used to over time.
We suggest that everyone slow down on this process and start
searching out new ways of re-opening it to the public via
outreach into local communities outside school walls. Hold
meetings in other meeting halls; attend town and civic meetings
to recruit input. And stop thinking in terms of “spinning”
the information via newspaper columns and direct mailings
in lieu of listening to the wide community, even when that
means literally putting one’s ear to the ground to do
so.
What we’re working on here is a change as big as any
that’s effected our communities in the half century
that Onteora’s been in existence. Don’t push ideas
based on majorities elected on other issues… let them
gestate more naturally.
Our future, as seen in all our kids, and their eventual kids,
depends on it. PS
