What kind of building do we use to teach New Paltz Middle School students? The majority of it is classrooms and gyms intended for an entire school system -- its spaces designed for kindergarten as well as high school to suit the educational modalities and regional and national economies of long-ago times. Special education, handicap access, the digital age, childhood obesity, exorbitant energy costs, the "service economy" and a building population of 600 hadn't even been imagined when we last built in 1966. But we are trying to teach the students of today with the mandates of today and the economy of today in a structure that was not designed to be adaptable to today's needs.
When our most recent addition was built, manufacturing accounted for 30% of jobs in America. Now that's down to 9% and going down every year. Construction is down to 4%. And due to the stockpile and tighter credit, that figure won't grow and is likely to decline. Agriculture, fishing and forestry are below one-half of a percentage point. Eighty percent of the economy is in categories described by the Bureau of Labor Statistics as "managerial, professional, technical, sales, office, other services." And a substantial number of jobs categorized in blue-collar sectors are increasingly digital and robotic, requiring modern technical skills above physical strength and agility.
So when some say we should persist in educating our students in old buildings that were created when the overwhelming majority of jobs into which we expected our kids to emerge were blue-collar, or with classrooms that cannot be wired for the knowledge needed for today's economy, what are they really saying? Sure, we're in a downturn, but doesn't emergence from that depend entirely upon preparing our young people for the segments of the world economy still centered in the United States? When recovery starts, do we really want our graduates at a disadvantage in competing for jobs or additional training in college? Do we abandon them in their hour of need and in the hour when their country needs them? Our own children?
Since 1966, our economy has completely transformed and post-graduation goals and requirements have transformed along with it. Educational mandates and modalities have completely transformed. The local population has dramatically multiplied. I wish I could cap this off by saying "but our middle school has remained the same," but I can't, because the truth is it has substantially deteriorated, so much so that it will take at least $10 million right now just to keep it functioning and not even for very long based on the school's age and physical condition.
Our community was informed of this two years ago when the School Board sought input on how to proceed. The response was overwhelming and of nearly one voice -- renovate, expand and improve the middle school on its current site. Since then this community has elected new board members largely on their commitment to carrying through on that mandate. Now we are nearing the critical date on which we will vote to implement that which we asked the board and administration to spend two years developing -- a modern middle school designed for 21st-century education and economies in the heart of New Paltz with the historic 1930 building preserved. The last fear standing between us and a better future for our children -- the prospects for reductions in state building aid -- are now relieved as Governor Paterson's just-released budget, while containing a full spectrum of state-wide spending reductions, actually increases school building aid by $222 million. This work is as much a priority in Albany as it is for our district.
On Tuesday, Feb. 9t please support the New Paltz Middle School renovation and ask your acquaintances and entire community to do the same. It's the right thing to do.
Steve Greenfield
New Paltz
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment