Editorial
Choices

It's funny how things sometimes seem to go off in opposite directions. At least 600 union workers showed up at Clinton High School last week to demand that a big project be built in the Bronx so local union workers get the jobs.

Meanwhile, some providers charge that the Meals on Wheels program for homebound seniors may soon be changed, making it impossible to pay union wages to the workers who deliver them. The same city government is making both of the decisions on these questions.

Over in the world of education PS 280/MS 80 are about to go through some changes. More than 20 years ago, some parents there had the idea of changing 80 into a Jr/Sr. High School, building on one of several academically challenging programs at the school. Unfortunately, there was no space to do so, but the idea seems to have had merit because it was implemented in both Riverdale and Kingsbridge where academies with grades 6-12 have been established in new space created for them.

Our neighborhoods are apparently going in a different direction, though. Starting with PS/MS 95, continuing with PS/MS 20, and now with changes at PS 280/MS 80, most of our schools will be Kindergarten through eighth grade. Those that aren't, often have direct K-8 connections like the Bronx New School and the Jonas Bronk Academy. But Norwood and Bedford Park still don't have a "local" high school and our eighth graders are scattered throughout the city when it is time for high school. 

Maybe it will all work out. New smaller high schools are being developed in a number of large high school buildings in the area and the various middle school programs could develop good educational relationships with them. Mostly, though it seems like our neighborhoods are being buffeted by winds of change that come from someplace else and have no regard for local needs. 

Should middle schoolers be with high schoolers as in Kingsbridge and Riverdale or should they be part of grade schools as at PS/MS 20? Is saving one dollar per meal enough to force wholesale changes in the Meals on Wheels program? For that matter, is the Kingsbridge Armory an important project that will move forward quickly or is the whole city too busy getting ready for the Olympics? 

We will keep searching for the rhymes and reasons behind these decisions. Stay tuned.

Dart Westphal
Publisher

This issue's editorial was prepared in the absence of Norwood News Editor Jordan Moss, who is now a proud father. We wish the whole family health and happiness.

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