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What Greenville needs
to do to pass a levy
By Stephen Gruber, Ph.D.
Editor’s Note: Steve
Gruber is the Chair of the Education Department at Cedarville
University. He was the principal at Greenville High School from 1994 to
2000. Prior to that he was the principal at Arcanum-Butler Middle
School for six years. He graduated from Greenville High School in 1970,
earned his B.A. in Social Science at Cedarville University, and
returned to Greenville where he taught for eight years. Steve was
assistant principal at GHS for six years before moving to
Arcanum-Butler. In other words, much of his life has been devoted to
Greenville Schools. He has already provided valuable information to
Darke County Center for the Arts on the history of Memorial Hall. He
sent the following to me and kindly gave his permission for me to
publish it. So here it is… his take on Greenville’s levy woes.
Hello Bob,
I know that you have been a supporter of Greenville City Schools and
their efforts to build new facilities. With this in mind I have decided
to share some thoughts with you regarding the next levy campaign.
Positive in nature
No blame and shame voters if they have not voted in favor of the levy
in the past or use guilt tactics such as “you benefited from the system
now you need to pay for the next generation.”
Don’t promote a crisis. Even though this seems to be the way to
get things done in Congress we should be above the notion that “no good
crisis should go to waste.” Sure, some of the buildings are very old
and in need of replacement… but we could in the future continue to use
these facilities and do currently use them. After all, their
designation as being “old” and in “poor repair” is very relative.
Travel, as I have done, to many of the Eastern European or Caribbean
countries and you will observe truly poor school facilities.
Promote the positive about
Greenville and its schools
We have an incredible heritage upon which to build future success and
better facilities would enhance this heritage.
Greenville has many examples of being a “progressive” community in the
past and we need to encourage our current citizenry to reflect on this
and be willing to partner with the schools to attain new heights.
Henry and Ella St. Clair envisioned a community and a school system
that could greatly benefit from a performing and fine arts facility.
Did the school system absolutely need such a facility? NO!
However, there are unending testimonials to the huge benefit this
facility has been to the children and adults of the community. The St.
Clair’s positioned, at great expense, the Memorial Hall to be part of a
“community center of learning and culture.” Memorial Hall was placed
between the beautiful Carnegie Library and what in 1923 became the then
“state of the art” Greenville High School. For a community the size of
Greenville these three facilities were and are amazing facilities for
learning and performing.
Fred Coppock and family envisioned a city park, a downtown Greenville
fountain, and a YMCA among other things. Every day hundreds of
Greenville citizens use and enjoy these outstanding facilities. We need
to get people to reflect upon what life in Greenville would be without
these facilities. It was progressive people of vision and who desired
for Greenville to be an exceptional community.
The Greenville City Schools has produced through its facilities many
outstanding graduates who have contributed to the progress of the
nation.
Zachary Lansdown – Commander of the USS Shenandoah – was on the cutting
edge of the development of flight. http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/lansdown.htm
Lohmann Brothers – Telescope makers – were on the cutting edge of
making precision lenses. http://www.antiquetelescopes.org/20thc.html
I’m sure Dick Brown, President of the GHS alumni association, can
provide you with other names of former students who have achieved great
things as a result of their preparation in Greenville City Schools.
A Progressive Legacy
A campaign should be designed to highlight each week an example of
Greenville’s progressive past and spirit to be exceptional. We
benefit today from the progressive efforts of those who have gone
before. Today is our opportunity to extend this progressive legacy.
Ad infinitum
The current Greenville High School which opened in the Fall of 1961 has
been the high school facility for Greenville City Schools for a period
of time longer than any previous high school facility (50 years).
The community in the past has been very progressive in the past in
providing new state-of-the-art high school facilities, building new
high schools every 30 to 40 years. We are due for this sense of
progressiveness to manifest itself in new school facilities. The most
pressing need is a new Grades 6-8, Middle School to replace a facility
that was deemed no longer suitable to be our high school in the late
1950’s.
Return to Neighborhood
Schools
In my opinion the next new facilities to be built should be new
“neighborhood schools” for our grades pre-kindergarten through Grade 5
to replace East and South and return Woodland Heights to a pre-k thru 5
elementary to serve as a “north school.” These three neighborhood
elementary schools would produce a sense of community for those who
live in these neighborhoods… a sense of pride and ownership that
we used to have when our elementary schools were neighborhood schools.
Now everything is so decentralized with parents sending their children
to three or four different buildings, depending on the ages of their
children. As a parent you have to know and work with the faculty and
principals of three different elementary buildings simultaneously.
Finally we do need to replace the current high school but not until we
meet in my opinion the more pressing need of a new middle school and
elementary facilities.
That’s my opinion…what’s yours?
Thanks for reading,
Steve
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