February 21, 2020 at 8:13 p.m.
Communication is key to change
Editorial
Communication is key to change
We tend to dislike change.
That can make things difficult, because change is an inevitable part of life.
Sometimes that change is sudden, immediate, unexpected. There’s not much we can do about that.
When change is something we can foresee, it helps to be well-prepared and have as much information at hand as possible.
That’s why Jay School Corporation deserves a pat on the back.
No one likes closing schools. That was true way back in the 1960s when Madison, Poling and Gray were shuttered, in the 1975 when the remaining local high schools merged to form Jay County High School and in recent years when Pennville and Judge Haynes elementary schools closed their doors.
And no one relishes eliminating both middle schools.
But those decisions were forced by the realities of our population and finances. Fewer students mean less money to run our schools.
Given that situation, superintendent Jeremy Gulley and Jay School Board have done their best to make the coming changes as painless as possible.
They made the decision well in advance — December 2018 — to allow maximum time to work out details of the transition. Updates about the building consolidation are the focus of virtually every school board meeting, including Monday’s detailing new traffic patterns and pick-up/drop-off procedures for what will then be Jay County Junior-Senior High School. And the goal is that when students finish up the 2019-20 school year in May, they and their parents will have all of the information they will need for when they return to the classroom in August.
Will there be hiccups? Almost certainly. It would be virtually impossible to avoid them when making so many changes — sending seventh and eighth graders to the current high school building, moving General Shanks Elementary students to the current East Jay Middle School building and returning sixth graders to the elementary schools — that will impact hundreds of students and their families.
But those, we feel confident, will be limited because of the approach the school corporation has taken and will continue to take.
Communicating openly with the community makes all the difference.
That’s something the school corporation should never change. — R.C.
That can make things difficult, because change is an inevitable part of life.
Sometimes that change is sudden, immediate, unexpected. There’s not much we can do about that.
When change is something we can foresee, it helps to be well-prepared and have as much information at hand as possible.
That’s why Jay School Corporation deserves a pat on the back.
No one likes closing schools. That was true way back in the 1960s when Madison, Poling and Gray were shuttered, in the 1975 when the remaining local high schools merged to form Jay County High School and in recent years when Pennville and Judge Haynes elementary schools closed their doors.
And no one relishes eliminating both middle schools.
But those decisions were forced by the realities of our population and finances. Fewer students mean less money to run our schools.
Given that situation, superintendent Jeremy Gulley and Jay School Board have done their best to make the coming changes as painless as possible.
They made the decision well in advance — December 2018 — to allow maximum time to work out details of the transition. Updates about the building consolidation are the focus of virtually every school board meeting, including Monday’s detailing new traffic patterns and pick-up/drop-off procedures for what will then be Jay County Junior-Senior High School. And the goal is that when students finish up the 2019-20 school year in May, they and their parents will have all of the information they will need for when they return to the classroom in August.
Will there be hiccups? Almost certainly. It would be virtually impossible to avoid them when making so many changes — sending seventh and eighth graders to the current high school building, moving General Shanks Elementary students to the current East Jay Middle School building and returning sixth graders to the elementary schools — that will impact hundreds of students and their families.
But those, we feel confident, will be limited because of the approach the school corporation has taken and will continue to take.
Communicating openly with the community makes all the difference.
That’s something the school corporation should never change. — R.C.
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