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| Charlton Road in Charlton at 10 am on March 19 |
As a kid I remember waking up on winter nights and looking out the window at the streetlight to see if it was still snowing. I remember waking up to Don Weeks on my AM radio, hoping to hear “New Lebanon Central Schools- CLOSED”. As I celebrated the free day off, my “6th grade” self never gave a thought to the kind of intense deliberation that went into each decision to close or delay school. Now I know. :)
I apologize for the late “change in status” of these past two snow days. Believe me, the changes were not made lightly. They were both made from my van on the road, checking conditions, on the phone with (Transportation Supervisor) Rich Hewlett looking at the radar on my cell phone, and listening to weather reports. While both calls ended up being the right decision, it’s not the way it’s supposed to be done! It leads to inconvenience, I know. I really apologize for that. For some parents it meant leaving work and going back to pick up kids from day care. Some of our teachers had already begun the commute to school. This will not be the typical method of closing, I assure you. Rich tells me that in his 10 years here at BH-BL, he cannot remember two back-to-back decisions that were so tough.
It all starts calmly enough…
4:30 text messages between myself and neighboring superintendents, phone calls
to the bus garage… booting up the laptop to go to the school closing web page,
trying make a call as close to 5:00 am as possible. Remember the dire
predictions of the “Storm of the Century” earlier in the winter- the day that
everyone closed and we didn’t have a flake on the ground? Well these last two
storms were different. At 5:00 am it seemed like they were each about to turn
into slushy spring nuisances… but they didn’t!
All day yesterday I asked
myself: “why didn’t I just close at 5:00 and save everyone a lot of trouble? As I thought about it, the answer was clear…as
easy as it might be to just close school and hit “snooz” on the iPhone… I just don’t
want to close school. If at all
possible, I want BH-BL to be open.
Why? I know that kids everywhere have spoons under
their pillows. I know how great a snow day feels. I’m sure even a few high school students (and
teachers?) wore their pajamas inside-out. But we really don’t want it to happen! We
don’t want to close school. Not because
a snow day isn’t enjoyable- of course it is. Not because we don’t technically
have the snow days to use… we do. We are
so reluctant to close school because of the incredible things that happen when
our buildings are open. We have so few days! So few days and so much happening…
Every closing brings a list of lost opportunities, altered lesson plans,
cancelled activities, and countless other great things… that just don’t happen.
I could list a hundred
examples of the types of things I don’t want to disrupt with a snow day…. Our recent
middle school and high school musicals are perfect illustrations. Last Friday,
the snow day almost disrupted the Friday performance of The
Music Man, Junior. This outstanding troupe of actors and actresses put on a
first rate production that exceeded anything I have ever seen from a middle
school cast. Fortunately the March sun warmed up the roads and the kids played
to a full house on Friday night.
With experiences like that in
the middle school, it is no wonder that the level of talent we have at the high
school is so strong and so deep. I had
the privilege of attending Curtains at
the High School on Saturday evening. I had never seen this particular musical
before. It was such a clever and complex production. The show actually began
with the finale of a western-themed musical (within the musical) called
“Robbin’ Hood!” It was odd to watch a
musical begin with a finale and odder
yet to see the female star of the fictitious “show within a show” die on the
stage…Murdered!
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| TheBH-BL Cast of Curtains |
In an extremely amusing twist,
the detective harbored a lifelong desire to become a professional actor and he
seemed as intent on fixing the failing musical as he was on solving the crime. Of course, several more characters are
murdered and several “scenes” are re-written before the detective identifies
the killer, realizes his dreams, and (spoiler
alert) gets the girl (Marion Kinosian)!
The cast had the audience
(which, by the way, included a very large percentage of high school students)
laughing out loud throughout the performance. Each of the main characters
pulled off their roles with such skill! Foster’s Boston accent and wide-eyed
awe of the professional acting company was completely believable and drew us
into the story. Andrew’s British wit,
Ward’s hard-nosed determination, Van Nostrand’s reckless resignation, Kinosian’s
innocence and gullibility, and Benwell
and Rao’s emotional pain were played and sung out with passion and perfection.
The depth of the BH-BL acting
talent was further evidenced by the supporting performances of Vince Fulgari,
Nicole Schumacher, Jesse Holland, Karl Salvatore, Nik Lombardi, Matt Rigby, Sam
Lynch, and Alana Picozzi. The musical featured an ensemble of at least 25 other
students as well as a stage crew of 16 that pulled off a series of amazing sets
and special effects. Of course they could change the set, talk with the
orchestra pit, and boss around the spotlight operator right in the middle of the scenes, since the whole story
took place on a stage!
All in all, Curtains was a complex, daring, and extremely entertaining choice
for this year’s musical. The cast and crew, as well as Director Eric Shovah,
Vocal Director Jean Foster, Technical Director Chris Lombardi, Orchestra
Director Brian Tetlak, Producer Carol Hobday, and Advisors Stephanie Andrejcak and
Mialisa Lindholm Herron should be extremely proud.
By the way… I like to think I
had a tiny little role in the success
of Curtains. The day after the “Storm
of the Century”… yes… the first snow day… Director of Fine Arts, Mike Danis,
asked me if I would open the High School Building to allow the professional
orchestra to come in and practice together because time was short and they really
needed to work. We figured out the details and made it happen. I am glad we
were able to accommodate that. The orchestra- including several of our faculty members-
was fantastic.
One more of a thousand reasons
I don’t like to close school.
