Most people agree with the new “open campus” policy, but not on how it has been decided.
On July 6, the Board of Education voted to adopt a pilot program to limit open campus to Juniors and Seniors. There has been a negative response to the move, (see “Nyack HS: Open and Shut Campus“, “Open Campus Needs to Be Open Discussion“, “Survey on NHS Open Campus Policy“).
The push back has been more about the process than the actual policy. Of the 89 people who responded to our survey, 60% agree the current policy needs to be changed.
89 people responded to our survey. Here are the results from each question:
| Q1 — Are you in favor or keeping the current Open Campus policy at Nyack High School, which permits all students to leave the school campus for lunch? | |||
| Yes | 35 | 39% | |
| No | 54 | 61% | |
| Q2 — Agree or disagree: Open campus should be restricted to juniors and seniors | |||
| Yes | 45 | 52% | |
| No | 42 | 48% | |
| Q3 — Agree or disagree: Open campus should be abolished for all grades | |||
| Yes | 17 | 19% | |
| No | 71 | 81% | |
| Q4 — Select the one option that best describes you. | |||
| Parent | 34 | 38% | |
| Taxpayer | 40 | 45% | |
| Graduate | 12 | 13% | |
| Student | 3 | 3% | |
| Q5 — I live in | |||
| Nyack | 38 | 43% | |
| South Nyack | 15 | 17% | |
| Valley Cottage | 17 | 19% | |
| Upper Nyack | 12 | 13% | |
| None of the above | 7 | 8% | |
I am surprised that this issue takes more precedent than the fact that we need a new superintendent. Puzzling. There are much more important issues at hand.
Thank you.
I truly believe that open or closed campus is a “huge” non issue. I can honestly see the merit in both policies. This is something that would have zero bearing on my decision to send my child to this or that school.
This is reminiscent of the silly Indian logo issue of a few years ago.
But such a large response…I would rather hope to see the peoples passions directed toward the quality of the education.
This is quite anecdotal, but the summer make-up regents were held this past week at a school in North Rockland. More than one parent told me that it looked like there were a lot of Nyack students there. Let’s get our kids educated to the point that they could pass NY State Regent exam.
We did receive a large amount of email in addition to the 37 comments on the issue. It was one of the largest responses to a single issue we’ve seen at NNaV.
But, point taken, strong comments from a small number of people does not prove a “huge” response. I took out the word “huge”.
How did the writer of this article conclude that “there has been a huge negative response to this move”?
The survey is in favor of the new policy and does not even ask about the decision “process”.
Some of the comments expressed in previous articles do criticize the decision process, and if you read what is happening in East Ramapo, it’s important to have transparency and accountability. But, a “huge negative response”, maybe that is somewhat exaggerated.