The transition to daylight saving time encouraged a quicker pace for many who spent time along the path around the Falls on Sunday, since there were only 23 hours from midnight to midnight. That change in daylight at the end of the day and the warm weather at the early part of the week reinforced the idea that we were moving out of winter, and there were better times ahead.
As the school year reaches toward the finish line, there are a number of annual events that occur. Our National Honor Society induction ceremony was held Thursday. This is a great organization that recognizes students for scholarship and service.
This coming weekend OFHS will host the 2015 Near North Music Conference District Solo and Ensemble Festival. Students from Oconto Falls High School, Washington Middle School, Oconto High School, Oconto Middle School, Marinette High School and Marinette Middle School will be on hand, along with many parents and other visitors. Like so many other events held in our buildings, this brings hundreds of people to Oconto Falls and provides a bit of a stimulus to the local economy as visitors drop a few coins with the local retailers as they seek nourishment, fuel for vehicles and who knows what else.
The event this weekend is another great example of the learning activities young people experience outside the regular classroom. The great variety of fine arts and other opportunities available in the Oconto Falls area schools help promote the growth of the “whole child.” The ideal school experience is much more than the “3 R’s.”
Events like this weekend’s festival would not be possible were it not for staff members who go beyond their usual assignment to prepare the buildings for the event and a long list of volunteers who give their hearts and souls to the love of music. The festival is a great opportunity to showcase the young people who put a lot of time and effort into something for which there are no standardized tests and no mention on the Wisconsin school district report card.
At this point in Wisconsin’s proud history of support for public education, we find that supporting well-rounded comprehensive opportunities for the young people in our public schools is no longer a priority for the decision makers in Madison. During the past few years, not only has support for Wisconsin public education not kept pace with inflation, but it has faced reductions. The state budget currently being considered by the Legislature includes another reduction for the coming school year. As a result, continuation of programming for the fine arts, and events like the one students will experience this coming weekend, are facing a steep uphill climb if they are to continue.
Even though the majority of our legislators were able to take advantage of those opportunities when they were younger and enrolled in our local public schools, many seem to have lost touch with that heritage and the commitment to future generations. They were elected to represent the people who live, work and raise families in their districts. Messages related to the dire effects have been sent in many forms, yet it appears that a number of the decision makers in Madison have disconnected with that constitution-mandated obligation. It is as if tuning their back on the “Wisconsin Idea” was not a drafting error but a marching order.
Obviously, this observer has a bias or two, but with 45 years of serving the young people in the public schools in three states, never before has it seemed that the role of a school superintendent was to stand watch while quality public schools were to go through a systematic dismantling. It is very hard not to have that perception today.
It might be easy to get the idea that this is just more of the “Woe is me” line that comes from this soap box, but the politics in Madison has educators, administrators and concerned citizens across the state just boiling. Perhaps the strategy is to propose big cuts to public schools and then tone them back a bit so that people are satisfied that only small reductions are made in state support for our schools.
The truth is, we have reached a tipping point. If our elected officials in Madison choose to stop investing in the future of the young people attending our public schools, there will be long-term ramifications for the great state of Wisconsin. That is not the sound of music you will be hearing over the horizon.
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