Kids Today in CarmelFree Access

Cunningham's Corner


Carmel Superintendent Andy Irvin, right, with Courier publisher Douglas Cunningham last Thursday. The lanyards tout Carmel’s 6 Cs: Communication, Citizenship, Collaboration, Compassion, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Photo by Douglas Cunningham

Carmel Superintendent Andy Irvin, right, with Courier publisher Douglas Cunningham last Thursday. The lanyards tout Carmel’s 6 Cs: Communication, Citizenship, Collaboration, Compassion, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. Photo by Douglas Cunningham

There’s a lot going on in Carmel lately. The district is still smarting after voters in December soundly rejected spending on two bond issues totaling $85.6 million.

I don’t think it’s really a mystery; it’s a hell of a lot of money. The first proposition clocked in at $37.2 million and would have gone to a new transportation depot/bus garage in Kent. The second, at $48.4 million, called for the demolition of two aging annex buildings at Carmel High School currently housing music and technology classes, thus paving the way for the construction of so-called innovation wings including an 800-seat auditorium.

Even in today’s dollars, that’s a lot of innovation.

Instead of being chastened, the board decided that Trustee John Curzio, who had vocally opposed the spending – though he prefaced his comments by saying he was speaking as an individual – should face a hearing and possible removal. Thus making him something of a folk hero in the district, insofar as school trustees could reach such status.

But on this rainy, cold Thursday, Superintendent Andy Irvin and I had another pressing topic: The shooting the week before at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Seventeen were killed, and more injured. Carmel students, Irvin told me, had approached teachers and administrators about ways to safely and responsibly register their protest that schools and carnage somehow go together now.

“It’s a positive sign about these kids we’re raising,” he said. He spoke about the 6 Cs at Carmel, the touchstones they want kids to come away with and use their lives ahead: Communication, Citizenship, Collaboration, Compassion, Critical Thinking, and Creativity. He was wearing the lanyard with all six, and had an extra for me; I’d never remember them without a reference. “This is the picture of what we want a Carmel graduate to be and to look like,” he said.

He’s encouraged the students want to register a protest, to take part in the civic moment. He appreciates that they understand the issues in play, the things the adults have to think about. “I don’t know that I’m comfortable with 1,400 students walking down the road,” he said. Perhaps an event at the school complex, student run, with the message coming from students. Invite lawmakers to grill them. Maybe a protest is registered by students and parents in Albany.

Are his schools safe? His answer is ready at hand, and he knows it is not absolute. “I believe that kids are safe. And I know that we are not prepared for every potential situation.” Just three weeks before, at the table where we conversed over fresh fruit, his team had reviewed ways to improve even more its lock-down, lock-out procedures.

Some 4,400 students, 5 schools, 86 square miles. And they are not talking about reading scores, not even the failed bond issue. Lock-downs. And this was before Parkland.

He has a particular perspective on the weapons issue. He used these guns in the Army, the military types on which the AR-15 is modeled; he qualified as a “marksman.” He doesn’t think there’s any reason for these types of guns to be available outside of the military and law enforcement.

Douglas Cunningham is editor and publisher of both the Courier and its sister paper the PCNR, in Cold Spring. Reach him at 845- 265-2468, or by email at editor@pcnr.com. Letters to the editor, on this or other topics, are welcome. Please send by email as plain text or a Word document by 9 am Monday.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *