The latest Dakota Poll finds moderate concern among South Dakotans that our K-12 public school system is not giving sufficient emphasis to foreign language, music, and art.
The Oldham-Ramona school district plans to give the arts even less emphasis. Oldham-Ramona school board members voted Monday to spend a little more on its $1.4-million school renovation project to eliminate the school stage and replace it with more seating for the gym.
It appears that Oldham-Ramona's singers, actors, and other performers won't even get a portable stage. Elisa Sand reports the original renovation plan included money for a portable stage, but board members have decided not to purchase that item right now.
A stage is a place where students do something. They sing. They recite Shakespeare. For a few minutes, they get to be stars.
Bleachers are for sitting and watching other people do things. Bleachers are where you are one of the crowd.
A stage provides space for students to meet educational objectives. Bleachers do not.
To trade a stage for bleachers is to trade participation, opportunity, and achievement for spectating. To build more room for people to sit and pay homage to the temple of sweat and balls without ensuring replacement space for students to create and perform is educationally irresponsible.
Cory, how much is the stage used for plays now?
Good question! Likely not enough. With it gone, not at all. Bad to worse, educational objectives misprioritized.
Research it further. I think you'll find the gym is used exponentially more for sports than plays. I'm not sure if there is any drama program left in Ramona.
We can hope that the OR district is planning to utilize the stage in the Oldham gym for their plays, Christmas programs, and band and chorus events. Inconvenient for daily practices, but better than nothing I suppose.
Having a dedicated stage is not a requirement to put on programs. The gym can be used for other things besides just sports. I was in several plays at DSU in the old women's gym. While there was a stage, there were no curtains and few props. We worked with what we had and the audience was very close.
Michael, that there may not be a drama program while there is a basketball program only emphasizes my point. So does the fact that we both performed at DSU on a substandard stage while the university expended enormous sums recrutiing out-of-state athletes and acquiring expensive atheltic training equipment. intermural competitive spectator sports get far too much emphasis over fine arts activities.
Expanding seating in the gym doesn't meet any requirements to put on programs, either. It certainly doesn't meet any academic objectives. But are you getting ready to turn around and tell me that the luxury gym at Madison is an essential part of the building plan?
A stage can be used for many things besides theater as well: music concerts, art displays, community events.
The stage was more than adequate for what we needed at the time. There was enough seating and I don't remember any students being turned down for roles. There was enough for everyone.
The Madison High School is essentially the same as when I went to school there over thirty years ago. We are not the Madison Central District's customers. The taxpayers are not. The parents are not. The school is to serve the educational needs of the students. By getting hung up on one aspect (luxury gym) of the remodel project, you may be dooming anything from being improved. If the vote fails to pass again, the project will be dramatically downsized. Maybe the gym will go away but fine arts will suffer in the revisions too.
I have found that I am better off supporting the school at a distance than getting myself too involved in the politics. I'm at the sidelines during games and post pictures on our website and submit them to the paper, BUT I find myself much happier not being as involved locally as I once was. I was too close for my own good. At some point I had to let go and trust that people in charge would do the right thing.