What happens inside school matters most

Commentary by Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News




School happenings are always big news.

The addition of three new high schools in northern Jefferson County is absolutely huge news.

Corner, Mortimer Jordan and Gardendale will all have new, state-of-the-art schools within the next few years.

The money is there, the architects are in place and the school board is more than ready to orchestrate all the details to make the facilities a reality.

Gardendale came a step closer to its school last week when officials held a groundbreaking ceremony.

The site work is almost completed for the first phase. Where the north campus of Gardendale High School once stood, there’s now nothing but earth.

Before long, we will begin to see a structure rising from the red dirt.

Next in line is Corner High School. The existing CHS is one of the oldest school buildings in the county.

Jefferson County Board of Education superintendent Dr. Phil Hammonds has said that as recently as five years ago, boys who were held after school for detention were made to shovel coal into the furnace.

The school board bought a piece of property on Warrior-Jasper Road for the new Corner High School. The board recently awarded the site work.

In the meantime, the board is looking for some property for the new Mortimer Jordan High School. The current space is too small.

School board member Karen Smith Nix said that the board purposely spaced out the building of the schools because it would be too hectic to have four schools in the same phase at the same time.

She said that Gardendale High School was the first to get started because the school board knew where the new high school was going — on the same spot as the old school. There were no searches or negotiations for property to deal with.

New schools are a wonderful thing, but shiny buildings are not the answer to giving kids a good education.

Hammonds himself has said it: What really matters is what happens inside the schools.

It’s the building of minds, the shaping of character, the passing on of knowledge that is the bottom line.

The good news is that these things are already happening in our area schools.

And more good news is that while a new building doesn’t make a teacher a better teacher, or a student a better student … it also certainly can’t do any damage.

The new facilities will enhance learning by giving students, teachers and staff a renewed sense of pride in their schools.

And anything that gets kids excited about learning is a very good thing.