At the regular Board of Education meeting on February 24, 2009 several parents spoke passionately in favor of keeping the Heritage at Stewart program open next year. Two common threads in the public comments were that parents and students had actively been recruited for the program, and that students currently in seventh grade at Heritage at Stewart could be shuffled between as many as four school building in four years (elementary, Heritage at Stewart, Heritage, wherever ninth grade is going to be in two years). There was also an excellent suggestion, that the Board or District Administrators communicate about this change in some way to the public.

This follow-up letter appeared in the February 27, 2009 issue of The Sentinel:

To the Editor:
The following letter was written to the Newburgh Enlarged City School District Board of Education.

Dear Newburgh Board of Education:

I would like to thank all of you for listening to the outpouring of support to keep Heritage Stewart open. As many parents stated we were surprised to hear about a possible closing of the school. I can not express to you the negative efect loosing this unique rogram would have on our children.

Heritage Stewart was created for children by you. The program concentrates on educating our children in smaller classes, promoting parent and teacher interaction in a school district that has ben plagued by negative publicity. As the school board you marketed this program as the ideal learning environment and in a short period of time everything we as parents were promised have come true. As parents we took a chance in a new program, in the school and in the district. How could we sit by and allow a successful program to be eliminated without questioning the moral hazard of the school district and board.

Is it not the district, school board and staff here to serve our children? As a board member you are the voice of our children, as parents we look at you as the guardian of their education. Our children look at all of us as the protectors, so why are we letting them down now when finally the program you have created has proven to be successful.

As a parent of a child in the school, I appreciate the resources and support my child is given. This environment has provided my son with the opportunity to learn and encourages him to think outside the box. He is more confident now than I have ever seen him. The bonds he has developed with his classmates and teachers are unvelievable. My faith in the Newburgh School District has been untarnished with this unique program that is being offered. I only hope that your actions will not change my faith.

If the district is going to considering eliminating any program, why go after the successful one. This program should be promoted throughout the county and state. The Newburgh School District has finally achieved a positive learning environment and their students are reaping the benefits. I am asking the board to please consider other alternative measures before destroying a program that has yet to come to its fruition. Please consider the many other alternative ideas that were presented during the board meeting.

I would be willing to sit down with anyone of you and go over the alternative ideas that were discussed and possible new ones. Our children were given an opportunity to succeed because the school board believed in them now show them that this has not changed in dark times.

Sincerely,
Lillian Antonelli, MS, CTR