Each year, my role as Board President brings a new set of challenges, rewards, and some unique experiences as an educator. One of those exceptional moments occurred last week when I met with a group of almost thirty retired New Hartford teachers. It was an occasion that blended New Hartford Central School's past, present, and future.
No one doubts that our great teaching staff is the bedrock of our instructional programs. It certainly says a great deal about an institution when faculty, long-since retired, wish to revisit our buildings to see first-hand the latest investments that our community as made for our children. Such faculty, after all, had invested decades of their lives to ensuring that New Hartford students prospered, and were instrumental in cultivating a nationally-recognized educational before they passed their classrooms on to a new generation of educators.
As one of their indebted former students, what I hope inspirational educators of the past such as Jim Kirkpatrick, Nancy Zukowski, and Peter Goodfriend found in a tour of our recently completed Triple A facilities is that New Hartford Central Schools is not only well-positioned to meet the current needs of our students, but also the promises of 21st century society. They witnessed the remarkable investment that our community has made in the face national uncertainty: a performing arts complex to host our student's exploration of music, dance, and theater; an athletics complex capable of meeting the needs of our student athletes and marching band; and a STEM center that, as one retired faculty member told me, has, among other cutting-edge features, a Project Lead the Way engineering facility that is the envy of schools state-wide.
Superintendent Nole and High School Principal Jennifer Spring took care that morning to demonstrate to our retired faculty that New Hartford Central School would certainly not be forging ahead with such confidence without their years of dedication to this district--the story of New Hartford's educational excellence continues, yet these were the folks that crafted the prologue.
James Davis
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