To the Editor:

Recently, I joined my fellow Berne-Knox-Westerlo School Board members at our October meeting and announced that I would not be running for re-election in May. As I approach my 80th year, it is time to pass the torch.

It is my fervent prayer that a dedicated person will step forward and take on this responsibility. Sitting at the table with us was my former student and newly elected board member, Randy Bashwinger. As I looked at him, I was struck again by the speed at which time slips away. Life, indeed, as Charles Dickens said, “is filled with meetings and partings.”

As I presented accolades to recent BOCES honored graduates, thoughts of my own high school graduation flooded my memory. The place was Berne, New York. The year was 1956. Rocky Marciano was the heavyweight champion of the world. Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier had recently married, bus segregation was ruled unconstitutional, military advisors were in Vietnam, and the Hungarians had revolted.

Many of us were reading “Peyton Place” or going to the Indian Ladder Drive-In to see James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause”; Elvis was rocking the world and ME — I was looking forward to starting my first summer job as an attendant at the Thacher Park pool (the place I met my future husband and my passport to a college education.)

Way back then, graduation was not at “The Egg” in Albany. Instead, the Class of ’56 (still basking in the glory of being the Class D, Section 11 New York State basketball champions, proving once again what we all knew to be true: “Nobody or nothing could beat Berne-Knox!” We were the best! We were #1!) marched into what is now the elementary scshool gym and proudly took our places on stage.

Harry Briggs, superintendent of schools; Walter Schoenborn, principal; Howard Zimmer, treasurer/vice principal; Willsey Sherwin, clerk/business manager; and George Northrup, school board president warmly greeted us. All faculty members, from kindergarten teachers to high school teachers, attended. Everyone in the crowded auditorium knew each of us by name and we knew them. Afterward, the PTA hosted a graduation dance and reception.

Our heads were crammed with our upcoming senior trip to New York on a BK school bus driven by the school board president and chaperoned by Coach Ray “Pete” Shaul. We would stay at the Bristol Hotel, see the Broadway play “No Time for Sergeants” starring newcomer Andy Griffin, see the Aquacades starring Morey Amsterdam (later to be part of the Dick Van Dyke Show), and view the “Eddie Duchin Story” at Radio City. We would dine at Toffenetti’s and Zucca’s and visit such places as the United Nations, the Statue of Liberty, and Coney Island.

Nine of our class of 37 were college-bound and destined to graduate from schools including RPI, Union, Hope, Clarkson, Cornell, Paul Smith’s and SUNY. Nine of us went on to business/tech schools and the General Electric apprentice program. Others were to travel a different road.

Little did I realize then that three generations of my family would graduate from BKW or that the most significant parts of both my personal and professional life would be spent in the shade of old Uhai.

In retrospect, I realize that the Class of ’56 shared with all our graduates the belief that “glorious will be our future” and the knowledge that we are part of a close-knit community that cared and wished us well.

The board, then as now, is bound by a “handshake agreement” to open a world of possibilities for our children and to provide them with the best education possible. They did their best for us, just as the present board strives to do its best for all of you.

Do not be a bystander in this process! Many have told me that they could not withstand the controversy and stress of being a school board member. I urge you not to shirk your responsibility. Run for the board! More than ever before, our children need you to be there for them.

Helen Marie Lounsbury

Berne