Goodbye,
Narrowsburg High School

This winter and spring, a number of events have taken place at Narrowsburg (now properly called Sullivan West at Narrowsburg), which have marked the end of something.

There was the last high school sporting event (a boy’s basketball game) last March. There was the last Christmas concert and the last spring concert to involve both the elementary and high school chorus. On June 1, a night that rained cats and dogs, kids in evening gowns and tuxedos gathered in the gym to promenade under the arch into their last Narrowsburg prom. Academic awards night, held four days later, marked the last honor society ceremony on the stage. The high school band will perform for the last time during graduation on June 22. And, yes, that same Friday night will usher out the last senior class ever to graduate from the building.

People come to Narrowsburg in all sorts of ways. Many are emigrants from the city, looking for a safer school, a slower pace and an affordable place to live. Many had vacation homes here, which have turned into permanent abodes. Many have lived here all their lives, with family trees that extend back generations.

Over the years, parents and educators have expressed frustration at the limited scope of the school. It is small and a little bit dingy. The first time I walked into the school, I became claustrophobic. The walls filled with children’s drawings leading to the cafeteria, whose benches swung up into the walls like dominos fitting into a box, did not seem inviting or bright. And yet, over the years, this image has changed.

True, it is hard to offer a full range of classes and athletics when the entire student body numbers under 300. It is hard to modernize a building constructed in the 1929. Narrowsburg did not have fancy science labs or computer labs, or a large auditorium or gymnasium. Many teachers had to share classroom space, and the music department was housed in a closet. Narrowsburg had no football team, no ski team, no swimming pool, no gymnastics workout equipment.

And yet, and yet… there was a certain spirit, a charm, held by the school. I noticed it in the interplay between classes—how older children looked out for younger, as in a family. I saw it in the consistency of the high school teachers—the good ones taught on, caring about the students and their subject, in spite of the adverse conditions. I saw it during the music concerts, where children felt safe enough to craft a solo or a duet on stage. And where, from the back of the room, they were cheered by their peers.

There was nothing more moving—or indicative of Narrowsburg’s intimate spirit—than the way graduates lined the walk outside the front steps, like young brides and grooms, shaking everyone’s hand politely and receiving countless hugs and well wishes.

In many ways, Narrowsburg High School has been a safe and caring school. But, things change, and rightly so. We cannot freeze time, nor can we consider that this tiny rural school, morphing into a bigger school, in a county that could explode into growth and new wealth at the start of the new millennium, could in any way be adequate to our kids as it now stands.

It’s goodbye to the last of everything, and hello to a number of firsts. The first Christmas concert on the Jeffersonville stage. The first football game and homecoming weekend. The first academic award ceremony. The first time your teen expresses genuine excitement over a new subject or activity. The first time he or she comes home and says, “I have made a new friend.”

Our kids need help in this transition period. They are scared, and so are we. We all are feeling the loss of our town—of not having a high school in Narrowsburg. We wonder: how long will the bus ride be? Will our kids be accepted at Jeffersonville? Will they be able to compete, or will they be lost in the crowd?

Our kids will follow our lead. A positive foot forward will go a long way. These transition years are not, by nature, smooth. But they are exciting, and full of challenge. We need to look back and say our goodbyes, and then we need to look forward with optimism, humor and hope. We need to help each other, but we also need to ease some of the ties that bind us so tightly, so that there is room for new growth.

Mary Greene, Associate Editor