It was truly a joy to sit in on Sea Bright’s workshop meeting on regionalization the other night and see how the people of Sea Bright are managing this brand new question that’s before them.
Their meetings of the Mayor and Council, in spite of the seriousness of the issues under discussion, certainly seem lighthearted and more neighborly that I’m used to seeing.
There’s no “state your name and address for the record” before anyone spoke at the workshop meeting on school regionalization. It was more “Christie” or “Erin” or “like my husband said earlier,” all because I think, the council members know the residents so well that the clerk simply fills in the last name and address for official records.
And while he kept the meeting highly informative, went out of his way to answer every question he could in detail, Porzio attorney Vito Gagliardo still could keep things light-hearted, phrasing a clever joke on his play on different meanings of his first name, Vito, and citing imaginary millions of dollars he has won and lost in gambling different outcomes on prospective outcomes.
But he was dead serious and positive of the financial benefits to all three towns if they approve the proposal in November.
What amazed me most is how education has changed over the decades. I can remember when everyone thought small classes, at all grade levels, were a really good thing, affording individual students so much more personal attention, enabling teachers to spend more time with each student and having students build up warm friendships with everyone in their class, because their classes were so small.
It was one of the reasons parents paid the big bucks to send their children to private school. But it seemed parents last night thought smaller classes were a detriment, they don’t allow for enough variety in educational choices, they don’t offer everything every child with special interest or talents should have. Or smaller schools don’t offer the athletic opportunities of bigger schools.
Should that really be a decision maker when talking about education? Why not have towns have athletic organizations? Rather than high school football games and softball or basketball teams, why not have athletic associations in each town that encourage students from all the schools to compete together as town against town? With the high cost of education, should extracurricular events be the criteria for choosing a school?
I like the fact the boards of education meet this week and are all going to be talking about regionalization.
I like the fact the Porzio and Kean reports are so aligned and the professionals involved want to continue talking.
I like the fact the majors of three towns could work so well together and their councils be so responsive to all the information they are bringing in.
As much as regionalization has been in the news, and as controversial as it sometimes sounds, I think it is an issue that is going to bring these wonderful communities together; it’s going to be an opportunity for those Sea Bright kids who jumped off the Highland Bridge all those years with their Highlands friends to get to know them once again as adults and talk about the good old days.
I think it’s a great opportunity for the newcomers to Highlands and Atlantic Highlands to learn more about the history, the memories, the joys natives and long time residents have about their hometowns that makes them think, rightfully so, they’re the best place in the world to live. And it gives those new to the area the opportunity to tell their own stories on why they chose to move here
