LETTERS TO THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Split high schools fuel Pickerington division
Friday, June 03, 2005
The May 21 Dispatch article ''Pickerington prom to reunite old pals,'' about the efforts to keep united the student bodies of Pickerington North and Pickerington Central high schools, made very clear the dramatic contrast between the way the split was handled in Olentangy schools and in Pickerington.
Olentangy immediately recognized that the eventual total separation of the schools and their student bodies was inevitable once they created two separate schools. They tried to deal with this in the most constructive and positive manner possible.
Pickerington, on the other hand, wanted to try to keep the ''good old days'' alive by perpetuating the mirage that ''we?’re two schools but one community.''
No, you?’re not. The kids don?’t see each other every day; they don?’t associate in sports, band, choir or school groups; they form different groups of friends. It?’s not necessarily bad or good, it just is what it is. It?’s much better to approach the split in a healthy, constructive manner than to try to keep alive a bygone era.
Olentangy faced reality; Pickerington seems intent on denying it. The recent joinder of the two bands to go to the Rose Parade is just one more symptom of this major denial.
Joint athletic boosters and band boosters? It?’s a contradiction in terms. I would wager that very few, if any, school districts operate their booster groups in such a manner. Just imagine the constant bickering over equality of funding, purchases, etc. I can?’t for the life of me imagine how anyone would think this would encourage healthy relationships between schools, when the two groups are competing for the same dollar under one umbrella.
Today, two full years after the schools split, the Pickerington Central High School track teams still wear hand-me-down warm-ups bearing the name of a school that has not existed for two years. They resort to borrowing vaulting poles at district track meets, because of their lack of equipment. When they go to make purchases, they are told that the money the budget shows them to have on paper is not actually there. Meanwhile, Pickerington North High School ?— otherwise known in town as the Acropolis ?— is outfitted with everything it needs, and of course, it?’s all brand new. Oh, yes, this Kumbaya arrangement is working just great, thank you.
From post-election remarks, Pickerington administrators apparently don?’t understand why the recent school levies have suffered massive defeats. This approach to school separation is just one more display of their refusal to wake up and smell the coffee. Their blind insistence on building a new school, despite the old high school having been specifically built to accommodate expansion, started them down this road to a divided community. But now that they have two separate schools, they don?’t want them to be separate. Go figure.
JAMES BROWN
Pickerington
By Got hair?
Split high schools fuel Pickerington division
Friday, June 03, 2005
The May 21 Dispatch article ''Pickerington prom to reunite old pals,'' about the efforts to keep united the student bodies of Pickerington North and Pickerington Central high schools, made very clear the dramatic contrast between the way the split was handled in Olentangy schools and in Pickerington.
Olentangy immediately recognized that the eventual total separation of the schools and their student bodies was inevitable once they created two separate schools. They tried to deal with this in the most constructive and positive manner possible.
Pickerington, on the other hand, wanted to try to keep the ''good old days'' alive by perpetuating the mirage that ''we?’re two schools but one community.''
No, you?’re not. The kids don?’t see each other every day; they don?’t associate in sports, band, choir or school groups; they form different groups of friends. It?’s not necessarily bad or good, it just is what it is. It?’s much better to approach the split in a healthy, constructive manner than to try to keep alive a bygone era.
Olentangy faced reality; Pickerington seems intent on denying it. The recent joinder of the two bands to go to the Rose Parade is just one more symptom of this major denial.
Joint athletic boosters and band boosters? It?’s a contradiction in terms. I would wager that very few, if any, school districts operate their booster groups in such a manner. Just imagine the constant bickering over equality of funding, purchases, etc. I can?’t for the life of me imagine how anyone would think this would encourage healthy relationships between schools, when the two groups are competing for the same dollar under one umbrella.
Today, two full years after the schools split, the Pickerington Central High School track teams still wear hand-me-down warm-ups bearing the name of a school that has not existed for two years. They resort to borrowing vaulting poles at district track meets, because of their lack of equipment. When they go to make purchases, they are told that the money the budget shows them to have on paper is not actually there. Meanwhile, Pickerington North High School ?— otherwise known in town as the Acropolis ?— is outfitted with everything it needs, and of course, it?’s all brand new. Oh, yes, this Kumbaya arrangement is working just great, thank you.
From post-election remarks, Pickerington administrators apparently don?’t understand why the recent school levies have suffered massive defeats. This approach to school separation is just one more display of their refusal to wake up and smell the coffee. Their blind insistence on building a new school, despite the old high school having been specifically built to accommodate expansion, started them down this road to a divided community. But now that they have two separate schools, they don?’t want them to be separate. Go figure.
JAMES BROWN
Pickerington
By Got hair?
