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“Let’s put the unity back in community!” |
| by Senator Richard T. Moore |
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January 13, 2006 - “Let’s put the ‘unity’ back in ‘community!’” That was the message that members of the Uxbridge’s Future Committee (UFC) clearly heard from the youth of Uxbridge. The UFC met recently with about thirty students in grades five through twelve who serve on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Committee as well as several student guests, in order to test their vision for the town’s future with those residents who actually represent the future. If all the residents of Uxbridge could have observed and listened to this thoughtful, articulate group of students talk about their town with pride and enthusiasm, they would have come away from the meeting, as I did, with considerable hope for the future of Uxbridge. As a resident of Uxbridge, I was particularly impressed with the quality and thoughtfulness of the ideas that these young people presented. In fact, it was an Uxbridge High School junior who cleverly coined the phrase about putting the unity back in community. As expected, the young people who met with us expressed a strong desire for a new, state of the art, high school. However, they did not complain about the quality of education that they are receiving even with less than adequate facilities. The student consensus was they were making the best of the current lack of a modern high school because of the high quality of their teachers who consistently demonstrated that they cared about their students. What might be surprising for some adults in Uxbridge to hear was the second most important priority among the students. Economic development to provide more jobs and tax revenues and preservation of historic buildings that give the town its distinct character were chosen by students as top goals for the town to achieve. The students endorsed the “Vision for Uxbridge’s Future” that was developed by the Uxbridge’s Future Committee, and they offered a number of very good suggestions for how to implement that vision. For more information on the Vision Statement or to get updates on the UFC go to www.uxbridgefuture.com. Among the suggestions were: expand school spirit events to involve the entire town, help local clubs and businesses hold an informational meeting each year to let them explain to interested residents what they do and how to get involved, ask the New Uxbridge Times newspaper to have a page or two devoted to promoting community organizations and events, get lights for the football field and baseball fields so that we can have night games at home, spruce up the appearance of downtown and the North End with ornamental street lights like Whitinsville did, organize a town-wide committee of students and adults to propose projects for students to volunteer for community service activities, offer student internships in Town Hall and local businesses to help prepare them for work, promote more appealing signage in the business areas and improve the downtown so it’s as nice as the Uxbridge Inn (Savers Bank), make the entrance to Pout Pond more appealing, and so many other good ideas. Uxbridge Finance Committee Chair, Ed Maharay captured the real essence of the meeting in these words: “The kids were wonderful! As I told Dan (Superintendent of Schools Dan Stefanilo) when I was leaving, I wished we could have a video of the meeting as the remarks, outlook and attitude of the kids were just terrific! They had a lot of constructive recommendations about the vision statement. They felt great about their education – to the point that Dan almost cried – and felt that things would only be greater if they had a new high school. All in all, I was very impressed and feel that the kids were extremely honest, constructive and positive about their town.” ________________ NOTE: Senator Richard T. Moore organized the Uxbridge’s Future Committee in June 2004 in an effort to restore a sense of community among Uxbridge residents after several years of divisive debate over a new school and other issues. He invited local organizations to nominate representatives to serve on a committee to work on community improvement. |
