By Jim Custer

When the Park North School was built in l894, the building brought together the children of Amityville Village and North Amityville in an integrated school system that has survived for a century. It is a district that has survived two world wars, the depression, the civil rights movement and many other historical influences. It is a district that, in many ways, struggles to survive today.

"I came to Amityville in 1956 and the very next day I began my freshman year in Amityville schools," said John H. (Hal) Schad Jr., president of the Amityville School Board. "I was overwhelmed because I came from a smaller district in a predominantly middle- to upper middle-class community in Pennsylvania, populated largely by executives from DuPont, Sun Oil (Sunoco) or the local college."

Schad said that environment provided him with limited exposure to the realities of the world and that it really was a culture shock to come to Amityville and see such a diverse population. He noted that this reference was not limited to a single ethnic group.

"At that time our schools consisted of about ten percent black," he said. "But my culture shock included a variety of ethnic mixes like Italian, Germans, etc. There were no racial issues back then. We were all Americans and Amityville people and we played ball together, visited each other’s homes and had a great relationship with each other regardless of our ethnic roots."

Schad admitted that as an adult resident of Amityville, he did not feel a strong need to be an active part of the local education process. "I left the functioning of the schools to school officials," he said.

According to Schad, it was in recent years that he began taking more than a passing interest in Amityville’s schools. "Several years ago I noticed the taxes rising out of control and a lot of negative press about our school district," he said. "Those things, coupled with the fact that many students were coming out of the schools, and not just in Amityville, with inferior educations. High school graduates would apply for employment with my company who could not even perform simple math procedures or spell or write legibly."

In the early 1980s, Schad began writing letters to Newsday and the RECORD regarding the schools. "I finally decided I wanted to do something more about this situation," said Schad who became a member of the Amityville Board of Education in 1990 and president in 1992.

"Many things have changed since I was in school," he said. "We have a lot of students with special needs and a lot of transient students. I’ve also seen a tremendous shift in the amount of parental involvement in the education system."

He stressed the importance of parental involvement. "The schools can’t do it all. Students spend only about 11 percent of their time in school," said Schad. "Today we have many single parent households and those with two parents often require that both work to make ends meet. This, coupled with the influences of the media, primarily television, force youngsters to grow up too fast."

Schad, who lived in eight different places before coming to Amityville said that n spite of these problems, he still sees Amityville as a wonderful community. "I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else."

Amityville Schools Superintendent Edward P. Mavragis, in comparing today’s educational problems with those of yore, quoted from a complaint made in New York City in 1819, "The blame for truancy may be placed on the parents who are ignorant, indifferent and neglectful of their children." Mavragis said public education as we know it today didn’t get cranked up until the middle 1800s. "In that period education was minimal," he said. "Fewer students went on to college and the age of high technology did not exist. Even in more recent times like 1950, the dropout rate was about 50 percent." The superintendent said America’s big push in technology in didn’t come until the 1957 launch of the Russian satellite, Sputnik.

Mavragis said up until about the late 1950s there were a lot of jobs available to vocational students like carpentry, auto mechanics, machinist, etc. "This country and England were founded on the apprentice programs to supplement the lack of real schooling or no need for it," he said. "Today we call these programs ‘business partnerships’ in which we place students in internships with businesses."

Another difference perceived by many adults is the general attitude among today’s youth. "A of adults would say the trouble with youth today is that a lot of them think they can say or do whatever they want whenever they want without fear of consequence and repercussion," said Mavragis adding that as peopole distance themselves from their youth, they see those times as "the good old days or Shangri-La". "The truth is," he said, "we’ve had rebels in every generation including the Bohemians, the hippies, etc."

One of the problems facing poorly educated youngsters today is the inability to obtain gainful employment. "You can’t survive on six dollars an hour," said Mavragis. "I think that’s the biggest message we need to get to parents today. You need a real good vocational education if you’re not college bound." He added that America today is mostly a service and research industry economy and we’re no longer the industrial giant we were years ago."

Methodology has changed, as well.

"Up until the 1930s, education was big on drill and rote work, memorization and fact, not training for thinking or technology," said Mavragis. "In the 1960s we went all over the place experimenting with teaching methods from not memorizing anything to do what you feel like doing with no consistency. The old culture and the new culture have been clashing for the past 30 years and we have not come back to the middle."

Violence has had its impact too, both in Amityville and across the country.

"The media has reached out to every hamlet and village in this country, glorifying violence in movies, on television, in music, etc. to the point that we have debased life and it is not important," said the superintendent. "Now that we’ve begun recognizing these problems, people want a quick fix and instant gratification, not hard work like other generations had to put forth to succeed."

This has led to a major problem for teachers, he stated. Years ago, even with the occasional rebel, teachers mostly dealt with students who were respectful and parents who reinforced that respect. In today’s classroom, teachers have to deal with students who are subjected to these negative influences and in many cases a lack of parental support. It is tough and some teachers are having a difficult time dealing with these problems and at the same time educating their students, said Mavragis.

Amityville resident and Suffolk County Legislator Maxine Postal sees changes in society that have had a profound effect on schools. "Obviously school districts are addressing many problems today that didn’t exist 30 or 40 years ago," she said. "When people of our generation came home from school there was someone in the home to talk to us, to make sure we had a quiet place to do our homework and to reinforce the things that happened between nine and three while we were in school."

Postal said the reasons for these changes are manifold and whether some of them are right or wrong, the fact remains that they are happening. "Its not like it was years ago and schools must address the consequences of those changes because they impact on all of us whether we have children in school or not. If we want our children to get the kind of quality education we received, we must address some of these social issues like child care and substance abuse awareness." Supporting Postal, Superintendent Mavragis said a national survey conducted recently revealed that schools today are viewed as custodial.

Language barriers also present new problems for the school system. Years ago, many youngsters from immigrant families needed only to learn English in order to assimilate into the classroom, said Mavragis. Today, many of these youngsters are from rural areas in their native countries and have had little or no formal education. This is a major problem with teenagers who, once they learn the language, must then be educated up to the level of their peers. Amityville’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program has been successful in overcoming part of this problem.

"Our evening courses also have a large enrollment in ESL classes," he said. "Most of our ESL students are Hispanic, but even within the Spanish language there are several dialects which compounds the problem."

Mavragis said just as the business world has had to gear up for today’s economic world, so must the schools. "Amityville schools have recently implemented several programs to address the needs of today’s students to prepare them for their futures," he said. "We’ve increased the enrollment in our business courses. This helps prepare youngsters to eventually run their own businesses. There’s nothing wrong with working with your hands or being a sales clerk, etc., but we must make sure we’re preparing our youth to be independent so they don’t stay at home until they’re 30 years old because they have no options." He said computers have become a necessity today, even in vocational training. "Auto mechanics, welders, machinists, etc. all use high tech in their operations," he said. "Anyone seeking employment in these fields must have at least a working knowledge of computers."

As the district struggles through these problems, more and more parents from the Amityville Village community have made the decision to send their children to private schools—a trend that many within that community feel will have a long term negative impact on the schools and the children.

To address that issue a newly formed group of residents called Better Education Starts Today (BEST) was formed. It’s aim is to bring together the greater Amityville community to work with the educators to improve the quality of education.

Schad said that in the past two years a lot of progress has been made in Amityville’s schools.

"We have problems, but now we recognize them and deal with them as they arise," he said. "The dialogue with the community has improved, our administration is working hard to address our problems and I’m optimistic about our future."