Last week, after we saw the pages of the Oyster Bay Enterprise Pilot all laid out, we were surprised at how much of the newspaper was filled with reporting on the Oyster Bay-East Norwich School District Budget Forum.
But, it was a long meeting and a great many people spoke.
Actually the time flew. The young people told meaningful heartfelt stories. What amazed us is how well they spoke.
At OB-EN board meetings we often see an adult come up to the microphone and start by saying something like, “I’ve never spoken in public before and I’m a bit nervous so please excuse me.” It is almost a given. There is something daunting about public speaking… and a microphone.
Not so with the students. They just spoke out from the heart, talking about their wonderful teachers and educational support system. In retrospect we think it was correct that we devoted so much “ink” to their stories.
On the same topic, we received some criticism about running the school district’s account of the meeting on the front page of the newspaper. It was a comment made by a local resident at the East Norwich Civic Association meeting. The person was annoyed that the story didn’t credit the writer.
We explained it was a press release from the district and traditionally they do not get bylines. And, the photo was superb. It really told the picture of a full house. It had to be on the front page.
Over the weekend, still on the same subject, we thought about the budget forum and the tough decision the board has to make about cutting staff. It made us think about the needs of the middle school student.
If you have ever had the experience of teaching seventh grade, we are sure you will agree with us. The students and the teachers need all the help they can get. It is such a difficult time for young people to go through. I remember saying to a seventh grade student something like, “I am keeping in mind the knowledge that next term you will be a totally different and wonderful person.” Hopefully you realize that at that time they were pushing my limits to the extreme.
Teaching students at that time of their lives is extremely difficult. It’s hard enough on parents, imagine a room filled with youngsters going through those challenging times of growing up. So, we are casting our vote to keep the assistant principal and the guidance person the students talked about.
It’s the job of our schools to create a workforce to keep Democracy glowing/growing. We need to save every future worker so that they become self sustaining members of society. There must be a statistic out there about how much money it costs society for not educating someone and having them fall through the cracks.
In our opinion you either pay for them now, or later. That is the same for parents and children: it you don’t spend enough time with them when they are young, you are going to pay for it in aggravation when they are older. Like death and taxes, education is another inevitability for society.
