The overwhelming yes vote for the Tisbury School at Sunday’s meeting is only a first step in the right direction.
The overwhelming yes vote for the Tisbury School at Sunday’s meeting is only a first step in the right direction. The opposition either didn’t want to stand up or decided not to show up. In 2018, a group of about 13 prominent Tisbury residents strategically posted a letter just days prior to election day, leaving the school building committee no time to post a rebuttal before the vote. The group stated that they had a plan that not only saved the building but also reduced the cost of renovation/addition by many millions. The school project lost by 21 votes after winning big at the town meeting.
During an early fall 2018 select board meeting, I personally handed out copies of that group’s letter. Since some of the signers were in attendance I requested that they share their plan with all of us. But they had no plan, it was just an idea. Fast forward to the present day, same old song, same empty plans and some of the same people. Voters, if you were fooled in 2018, please don’t be fooled again.
To the people who want to postpone the building project once again because they believe we should wait and build a regional middle school, I say that that’s like waiting for Godot. Until 1975, all Aquinnah, Chilmark and West Tisbury students in grades 6-8 attended the Tisbury School. That’s why the new West Tisbury School was built on County Road. Later the new Oak Bluffs School was built. The new Edgartown School, after several renovations and additions to the old building, was completed around 2003.
The Tisbury School is crumbling. We cannot keep postponing. Please vote yes for the Tisbury School either on June 17 or June 22.
Wiet Bacheller
Vineyard Haven
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I have been a Tisbury
Neal StillerI have been a Tisbury resident my entire life. I was born in this hospital. I went through Tisbury school as a student and I have great memories of my years there. My family has lived in the Tisbury School world for many years. A total of four generations of my immediate family have attended Tisbury, including my mother, my children, my grandchildren, and me. This includes my three older sisters, as well.
My family has been engaged with the school for reasons other than being students, though. Ruth Stiller, my mother, was one of the first students who, in 1929, proudly walked from their old school on Center Street, now the tennis courts, up the street to their spanking new school. As an adult she worked in the principal’s office for twenty-five years, through some great, some good, and one not-so-good principal.
Many years after my mother retired, my wife, Janet Stiller, began working there as a teaching aid. That morphed into becoming a fulltime Language Arts teacher who was truly loved by the students of the 5th and 6th grades. She created Biography Night, a massive undertaking with students in costume speaking as the person whose biography they’d read. These kids still remember this well into their 30’s. She retired recently after having worked the same number of years as my mother did, twenty-five.
To me, that building was like walking into a castle daily. Incredibly, it seems mostly the same as when I attended. I admit, I enjoyed a privilege that made the school so much more special. My mother had the key and often was the only one working on a Saturday or late on school days.
Now it’s my grandchildren stepping in. My grandson just finished first grade and his younger sister will attend in another year. They are both smart kids who are so ready to learn.
Your kids, grandkids, and future generations should have the school they deserve. This is a once-in-a-generation vote to insure that our very young are surrounded by a wonderful environment five days a week for years to come. The high quality teachers of the school deserve more. Allow them to educate the kids without worrying about leaking ceilings and crumbling walls. Heck, the school was already old when I attended in the 1960’s.
Yes, I realize that the old school will be gone once renovations begin, that’s the definition of gutting and that is what’s needed. That’s okay. As I understand it, the façade facing West William Street will be preserved. I appreciate that I can continue to look up at that traditional red brick school. Yes, it will cost. Hopefully, some private and government funds may be obtained. This town needs to unite and back a great thing. Let’s put Tisbury back on the map and take pride in our new school. Please vote on Tuesday in favor of the school, and let the Tisbury Tigers stay as one.
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