The Stories

In my opinion, I feel there is a large amount of residents that have moved from the Narrowsburg School District due to the fact of the school closing.

A good school places a large impact on a given area. Buyers with children inquire about the school situation before they choose an area to move to. Having the Narrowsburg school closed has caused a great loss in full time residents.

Best regards;
Dianna L Gilbert, Broker
845/252-3547 NBG Office
www.pennyorkrealestate.com
pennyork@frontiernet.net

My son Shawn is a 100 average student who loves baseball. He started playing T-Ball at age 5 for the Fremont Center Little League. Then when the little league folded and the Cal Ripken League was formed he played for the Fremont Center Cal Ripken Baseball League until he was too old to play. He basically played baseball every year from 5-12 years old. Last year he played first baseman and was affectionately called "Hover" by his team mates. The major boys coach, Charlie Reichenbaugh, awarded him with the "Most Valuable Player" trophy. Shawn tried out for the 7th and 8th grade Sullivan West Boys team. Needless to say he was cut from the team and crushed because he couldn't play baseball. To me this was a disgusting tragedy. Worse, he had nothing else to occupy his time or his mind. And he is not the only kid that got cut who really loves baseball. It makes one wonder why we couldn't have an intramural baseball league whereby everyone gets to play and no one gets cut. Because we are a merged district we now have one team as opposed to 3 teams and less kids get to play. Because we are a merged district our 7th grade basketball team has to play other schools with 8th graders and we continually get creamed. Because we are a merged district our children miss out on some of their classroom time because they have to leave school early in some cases to travel for games that are 2 hours away and parents don't always get to see their kids games because they are so far away. Why can't we have multiple teams so that kids aren't getting cut. If the kids want to play a sport they should be able to play. There has to be a better way of doing our sports program. Too many kids are falling through the cracks with nothing to do and getting into trouble as a result. Clearly there has to be a solution. What we are currently doing is simply not working.

Shannon Dee Bailey
Mileses

I think it's great that the Sullivan West School District has a chess club on Wednesday afternoons. However, if you happen to be a parent that works for a living your kid can't participate because it is right after school and the kids have to be picked up by 4:30 PM. My son Josiah can participate only because our friends, Bob and Julie Pisall, were nice enough to give him a ride home following Chess Club because they know that both my husband and I are working. I got to thinking about my own experience and then started to wonder.....What about the other kids who don't have the luxury of a family friend who is willing to bring them home from Chess club? What happens to them? They fall through the cracks of the system and don't get to participate. It would be nice if we had a late busing program that could drop them off at home after chess club or extend the program to end at 6 or 7 pm when most parents get off and can pick up their kids. There has to be a better way to have our activities without always excluding the same group of children from participating. Maybe a public phone chain of parent volunteers who are willing to be the car pool for those who can't do it. I don't know what the answer is but I know what we currently have isn't working for everyone.