Shelter Island Reporter editorials
Classroom furniture and equipment moved out to the corridors so that floors can be scrubbed and rooms made ready to receive students who return to classes September 9.
School days
The opening of the school year is a timeless ritual of little ones experiencing their first day on a road that might run for 20 years or more and parents giving reluctant but hopeful nudges to their children toward the schoolhouse door.
It’s almost always the same scenario, with seniors gaining confidence by the minute, scholars and athletes eager for challenges and accomplishments, and teachers ready to inspire their charges.
This year, the start of school here is no different in some ways and very different in others.
The 226 students who walk into school next Wednesday will find a continuation of multi-age classrooms and an increase in students in English as a second language courses.
An Academic Hall of Fame will rightly take its place next to the Athletic Hall of Fame this year. The building has been spruced up with new flooring in places and new carpeting in the band and music rooms.
Also, there’s hope there will be a resolution to the ongoing problems of replacing the antiquated heating and ventilation system.
Meanwhile, for all — students, teachers and staff — our wishes for a great year join those of parents and all community members.
Labor Day
With fast food and other restaurant workers beginning to make noise about organizing for better pay, this Labor Day weekend it’s important to remember that most of those employees aren’t kids but people trying to support families. The U.S. Labor Department, for example, found the median age of fast food employees is over 28.
This weekend, a marker for the end of summer, is a special day for Islanders. There’s little time, really, to reflect on summer’s passing because Labor Day is in many ways the opening gun for another race, to get the kids ready for school — and face the shopping that requires — to think of closing houses for our summer residents and for those in seasonal businesses, to balance some books and map strategies for fall and winter.
It should also be a time to remember what the day was named for and to consider a new, 21st century economy that working people who struggle to make ends meet are facing. It’s not a bad time to let elected officials know that everyone deserves a decent standard of living for their labor.
