by Thaddeus Flint
One of the first of many problems the Berlin School District’s new Superintendent, Dr. Stephen Young, wanted to address when he started work this fall was communication. “We have to sell BCS to the community, each community,” said Young in an interview with the Eastwick Press on September 30. At that time he envisioned visiting each town in the District to outline his new ideas, and in the past few weeks he has been doing just that.
Dr. Young is in the process of holding town meetings. He has already visited Stephentown and Petersburgh in the past weeks, and on Tuesday he was at the Grafton Town Library to introduce himself, meet the residents and parents and outline his ideas on 21st Century teaching and learning.
Since Dr. Young has started work though, a new plan to update two of facilities the District currently has operating has been drawn up. The Goodermote-Willis Plan came about seemingly overnight to spend $6.8 million in much needed repairs and updating to the Berlin Elementary School and the Middle/High School. The project’s unofficial name comes from its two architects, School Board President Gina Goodermote and Board Member Jim Willis, who have taken it upon themselves to create a plan now, without years of discussion first, so the District can pay for it largely with State funded aid which is now available. The District can fund such a project every five years. By the time this project is finished, they see a second plan already in the works, one of many to come that would eventually bring the buildings up to State mandated standards.
So it was little surprise that Young’s introduction was cut short by the District’s Leadership Advisory Committee (LAC) spokesman Atsushi Akera, who wanted to discuss instead “the elephant in the room” which is the multi-million dollar project that will come up for public referendum on December 13 with little “due process.” Since the LAC’s point of view has been strangely missing these past few months, it was obvious that most of the 25 or so in attendance wanted to discuss this idea instead. But Young, who spent years as a teacher before becoming an administrator, is an expert at getting a classroom back to his planned curriculum. “We will get to that,” he said. And it was just as well since his ideas on a new philosophy of teaching and learning were fascinating to hear.
Young sees a need for a new teaching style. “The world has changed,” said Young. The world has speeded up exponentially in the last few years. Teaching must follow as well. If students are going to leave the Berlin Schools prepared, they must be ready to work in an environment that is largely different than one a decade ago. In fact, Young pointed out that technology is evolving at such an incredible rate that schools have to be aware that what they are teaching now will often be outdated from the time a student enters high school to the day he or she leaves it. According to Young, “Schools can’t do it alone anymore. We need the help of local business and the community as well” if the students are going to be able to compete when they hit the job market.
One of the residents in attendance pointed out that this was all well and good but did Young realize he was talking to a town that has almost no broadband internet? Parts of it don’t even have cell phone reception. Young was aware. Just after moving to Stephentown he had tried get cable TV. “That didn’t happen,” he said. He hopes that local technology improvement could happen as well. Young envisions each town perhaps opening a building that could bring that technology closer so students could utilize it closer to home. “You mean like the old Grafton school?” asked a resident. Well no, “That’s not going to happen,” Young said, “but good try.” Young was even amazed that the Wi-Fi worked at the library in Grafton.
The full Young lecture on 21st century learning is certainly worth attending, and the final one, at the Berlin High School on December 5, might be of interest to residents who have missed them so far.
Young On The Capital Plan
Young then addressed the Goodermote-Willis plan. For him there was no other solution. The District simply does not, and will not, have the funds to build a new school or repair the buildings in Stephentown and Grafton. The elementary school must be brought up to code, and the High School needs maintenance now in order for it to not fall into the same disrepair that the other District’s buildings have been allowed to. “This is going to solve a lot of our problems in the long run,” said Young.
The residents didn’t seem so sure. First the plan is billed as being basically free. The State will fund $5.1 million of it. There would be no increase to the tax levy. Of course $1.8 million of the money does indeed come from the District’s Capital Reserve Fund, a fund which has been funded by local taxpayers out of their pockets over the previous years. That is their money. And as this is just one of a projected multi-year plans to upgrade the buildings, it will need more capital projects over the upcoming years which will require more expenditures from of the Capital Reserve Fund. Resident Andrew Zlotnick pointed out that with the recent budget being squeezed so thin, it was unlikely that the reserve fund could be largely re-infused. The reserves will run dry. If the referendum did pass there would only be $125,000 left over. Could we even trust the State of New York to pay their share wondered some. Young was adamant that the State of New York could be trusted in this capacity. “I am 99.9% sure the State will pay it’s share,” stated Young.
The next question was “What happens if we don’t do it?” What happens if the referendum is voted down? Board President Goodermote, who was in attendance, warned that if the buildings fell into complete shambles the State would come in and take over. That is true, but the Architects from C.S Arch who are overseeing that plan pointed out that that would be very unlikely. Most likely is that nothing would happen. The school year would go on, a boiler might die, and the school would lose funding for losing school days while the building was closed, and the District would still have to repair the boiler. This time at taxpayer cost, with no State aid. The representatives from C.S. Arch also pointed out that the elementary school building was also “the best building in the District,” which seemed to come as a surprise for residents who remembered spending millions to build the current middle/high school back in 1989.
For Young, there was no other solution. Not if the District had any chance of guiding it’s students on toward the 21st century. “Its up to you,” he said.
The vote is on December 13.