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04/11/2003 Archived Entry: "BARN RAISING"

BARN RAISING

I'm sure you all know that I KNOW there are many sides to any one of a bazillion issues involving our schools. No one has commented negatively about what I said, but they have commented about “the other side of the story” in letters to me, assuming I didn’t know. I do know, but I welcome their letters.

Primarily, I made an effort to point out what I saw and heard from the perspective of those who attended the meeting and what was said following the decision. I have a lot more insight into the issue than the few words I wrote on the matter. I just tried to come down the middle based only on the meeting and only the positive aspects that were presented.

There are many teachers I count among my friends and I trust the accuracy of what they tell me on this and other issues. And, I also understand that any negativity expressed the other night would have been ill-conceived.

The fact remains, there are still a large number of people who weren't happy about the decision of the board and ultimately the board is accountable to them.

One of the things that I’ve observed over the years is that support for our schools comes from many places. There are also places where support is lacking, tenure being one that now is an issue with people. The people of this community have always needed some way to connect their support with the schools as a group where some kind of unifying force brings them together. A kind of barn-raising attitude, as it were. Don’t ask me why as I don’t know, but I have long observed this and I suspect when people find a unifying force that brings them together, they go forth. They also unify against things, which is what we always want to avoid.

Patrons need to have something to hang their hat on in regard to their schools, a unifying force, so to speak. We know we have some excellent teachers. That isn’t the issue here. Unfortunately, patrons don’t fill stadiums to cheer teachers as they should. But maybe it’s because they express it in other ways.

Traditionally, the rallying cry to bring people in support of our schools has been the athletic program…mainly football. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard it said in years past, “Ellsworth is a football town”. Well, it isn’t any more, and hasn’t been for a long time. It also isn’t a basketball town and won’t be for years to come.

In so far as athletics are concerned, for reasons evident to most, it is now cross country and wrestling that capture the attention and support of the public, along with girl's events. Golf and tennis. Individual sports. Even that support is rather limited to parents and relatives of the student athletes. People don’t loyally congregate any more in great numbers in support of the football or basketball programs. I think the days have passed for the more traditional athletic programs. They involve too few students and cost too much to stage, and students are discouraged with the programs. If you look at the pattern of participation over the past years, especially in our smaller schools, individual sports are gradually taking the place of more traditional programs that once were successful.

So, where do you find all those school supporters now? In the PAC!

What has bridged the community with the schools, culminating with the Dave Rankin years, has been music. It has taken a long, long time for that to happen involving the hard work of many. I think that is undeniable. The PAC brims to capacity with every performance and people of the community take enormous pride in the accomplishments of the students. They give credit to people in the music department and the cooperation they observe within the department and classroom teachers working together. There may be internal problems and downsides associated with this, but that never shows during a performance. Such success has its detractors.

My observation tells me that there has been an effort afoot to minimize the importance of the music program perhaps because a little of the tail is wagging the dog. It seems to me that to have support of the patrons of this district backing the schools through whatever program, in this case music, has to be the best of all worlds. When you fill the PAC to capacity and see parents helping stage the events, you have to admire the results. And most of all, the pride that echoes from parents and friends is no less important or less heard than the rallying cry of a state championship in football. In this case, the state champions are coming from our music program. The music program k-12, along with administrative and school board support, is responsible for this success of the program. Excellence has been rewarded by overwhelming support from the general public. If they aren’t finding this means to draw them to the schools, people have a tendency to start picking away to a greater extent at the things that might bother them about our schools.

Where else is the rallying cry for our schools going to come from? Where else is there any cry for a barn-raising? You won’t fill a stadium talking about test scores although no one denies they are foremost in the minds of parents.

Patrons see “results” in the music department. Individuals with a common cause take pride in sharing those feelings in large numbers and crowing about the success of the program. You can’t blame them for wanting it to continue with the same high standards.

When you see the community backing the schools in such numbers no matter what the program, it doesn’t seem to make sense to me to give them less than what they are asking for and accustomed to having. You just don’t want to turn these people away. Internally, within the system, you make the program work. The only program that has in many years or will in the future be capable of drawing great numbers of patrons together is music. They leave a musical event happy and proud “of their schools”. It makes sense to keep these people happy. That just “ain’t gonna happen” again in the good ole boys traditional sports or any place else that I can see on the horizon.

And I reiterate: This is only my observation, based on years of soaking up information.