The New BCSD Superintendent Of Schools – A Chance For Change

by Thaddeus Flint
“The chance for change is now,” stated Dr. Stephen Young, who is a man with a plan. Many plans in fact. And the Berlin Central School District’s new Superintendent of Schools wants to bring those plans to the residents. Young sees communication in the District as one of his top priorities. “Once word gets out that this man means business,” said Young in a September 12 interview, “things will change.”
So Young might soon be appearing, as the Man for Change, at a town library near you, if you live in the towns of Berlin, Grafton, Stephentown, Petersburgh or Grafton. Young understands that few residents want to come to Board meetings, one of the only venues at which someone could currently meet a School’s Superintendent but at which there is limited time for residents to really voice their opinions, ideas and concerns.  Instead Young envisions bringing himself to the towns. And not just one but all of them. Young already has an inkling of how factionalized the communities that make up the BCS District can be. “We have to sell BCS to the community, each community,” said Young, who sees not only selling BCS at local libraries but at Town Boards, senior organizations, clubs, churches and civic group meetings as well. “Communication is key,” Young said at his first official Board meeting on September 21.
Young’s Background
Before arriving in Berlin, Young was a District Science Administrator at Lindenhurst Public Schools on Long Island. This District had an annual budget of $137 million in 2010, but Young does not see Berlin’s budget of $17 million to be in any way a hindrance in implementing a 21st century curriculum into the schools here. “I have a high positive outlook for the future of this District,” he said, “we could be one of the best.”
It is Young’s science background that drew him to submit his application to BCS as its Superintendent. The beauty and nature of the surrounding areas here captivated him. “I even brought my fishing rod,” he said, though he has yet had time to use it. “You are in a region which might be isolated…yet we can help make sure students are ready for a career or college,” said Young, “students here have a hands-on learning experience right in their own back yards.”
After graduating with a biology degree from Manhattan College in the Bronx, Young was a Park Ranger in Van Cortland and Pelham Bay, both New York City Parks in the Bronx. After teaching and at the same time serving as Assistant Principal of Supervision at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Queens, Young moved on to the prestigious Bronx High School of Science. This institution has had more Nobel Prize winners in science than any other high school on earth. Young’s work there from 1991 to 1998, in both science teaching and administrative positions, further provided him with the abilities to seek out funding for science programs from such institutions as Lucent Technologies for grants towards getting the equipment and hands-on training that allows a student to be an achiever in the 21st century. He does not see any problem in the doing the same at BCS.
Outreach
Young intends to reach out to the many scientific institutions in the areas, such as RPI, to seek both the funding and training that would allow a student at BCS to be adequately prepared for the economy that surrounds the community once that student has graduated. “Look around you; the latest technology is already here,” he said, alluding to the wind turbines on a hill hidden over the horizon in Hancock, Massachusetts, and the Beacon Power Frequency Flywheel Plant in Stephentown. “I would like to see a science program at BCS that makes use of the environment around us,” he said. “I want to foster a relationship that benefits them and us. We should bring those resources into the buildings.”
Touring The Buildings
Young is currently going on tours of all of the District school buildings to get a better understand of what problems face the District. He did not want to comment on what the District should look like in the future in regard to facilities until he had a better understanding of the problems he will have to face. He said, though, that “unless there is a dramatic increase in the population here” he could understand the current closings of both the Grafton and Stephentown elementary schools.