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General News: Efforts Underway to Save NYMA
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| Yolanda Melendez is spearheading an effort to save NYMA. |
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April 23, 2010
Two days after the trustees of the New York Military Academy announced that the school would cease operations at the end of this school year, parents, staff and alumni are still reeling from the news and attempting to figure out how to deal with the sudden news.
Faculty and staff at the school are trying to figure out what their future holds. Many of them live on campus and when the school ends in June they will lose not only a job but housing as well. According to one member of the faculty who asked not to be identified, people are experiencing a range of different emotions, from anger and sadness to concerns about their own wellbeing. The faculty is worried about the students as well, this faculty member said, after they have helped the cadets growth and flourish in the environment provided in military academy.
Parents Fundraise, Worry About Their Children’s Future
Parents are concerned about where their students will attend school in September and this Saturday, NYMA’s superintendent, Captain Robert Watts, will hold a meeting with them to help provide information about the admission process at other schools.
Parent Doreen Denice Syed, of Staten Island, says she most concerned for the junior class members who have completed several years at NYMA and were ready to take on leadership roles next year. She has launched a website, newyorkmilitaryacademy.blogspot.com asking anyone associated with the 121-year old military academy to make a donation if possible.
Two Million Needed to Re-open in September
NYMA superintendent Capt. Watts says that the school needs $2 million to open in September and $7 million to remain open in the long term.
The parents’ fundraising effort parallels an effort by alumni, some of whom say that this week’s announcement came as a surprise. Yolanda Melendez, a member of the class of 1989 who now lives in Monterrey, California, says she is ready to give up her job and studies and come to Cornwall in order to spearhead a fundraising drive.
Melendez said that she started a Facebook page last year when the alarm was first sounded about the financial stabililty of NYMA and that alumni contributed $2 million in large and small amounts. She and others thought that a crisis had been averted and they were surprised, she said, by news of financial insolvency yet again. “We asked, ‘what happened? We thought we saved you last year.’ This is not a fluke it is a pattern,” Melendez recalled.
Alumna Wants to Re-invigorate Effort to Save NYMA
Now the mother of two and a disabled Army veteran, she wants to throw all her effort into saving NYMA and she has offered to work for free for three years to achieve that goal. She says that the board of new trustees needs some new life and she is working on a business plan that she hopes to discuss with other alumni in May.
Part of Melendez’s plan for reinvigorating NYMA is to build a partnership with the Cornwall community, asking local residents and businesses to help keep the school’s doors open. She says that NYMA is a part of the community, where its cadets used to march in unison to church and where they still march in the parades or perform holiday music at the village bandstand. (The NYMA Jazz Septet is playing this Sunday at 2 Alices Coffee Lounge.)
Cornwall Community Can Help, Too
While she knows that there are well-off members of the alumni, Melendez recognizes that some people can make smaller but still vital contributions. “People who can’t donate or who can only donate a smaller amount can help raise funds or coach the football team and cut manpower costs.or donate goods and service,” she said as she painted an optimistic picture of how the NYMA can be saved from closing permanently. (Melendez can be reached at [email protected])
Captain Watts, who had tendered his resignation as superintendent of the school earlier this year, sounded more cautious about the prospects for NYMA’s future. He is concerned about the future of his current crop of 145 cadets but he said if the parents and alumni “can raise the appropriate money, we will all smile and move forward.”
Comments:
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I was a teacher for twenty-seven years at NYMA and came in when there were over five hundred cadets at the school. It was a great place to teach and had a faculty that was experienced with very little turnover. The young men, no females until later, were from a variety of backgrounds ranging from well known parents to folk that were just interested in getting more than a good education for their children. They wanted an outstanding education that could only be brought about by small classes, excellent faculty and the standards set by the military aspects of the school. There is no doubt the Viet Nam conflict hurt our enrollment at the time, but the school slowly began to recover despite some economic setbacks to the general public. What really hurt was a board of trustees that were more interested in their own egos than the school's functioning. How about landing on school grounds via helicopter? That enough egoism? It all became a money pit with wasted funds and mounting debts. There was no direction from the board, just meaningless meetings that accomplished little. When I retired I felt the school would not last more than five years and was saddened by that thought. I had seen the board in action, or inaction, and knew there was no hope. Yeah, Donald Trump would come through seemed to be the major theme which was not to be. Why? I would imagine he would not invest where nothing would be accomplished because he is all about money isn't he? And rightly so. The board did not have a clue as to what should be done and look at the sad results now. The grounds are bait for special interests and if the money paid is right the town will change sinificantly. And NYMA will be sorely missed just as it is during parades without the corps marching throught he town including the troop as it did long time ago.
posted by Henry Wortmann on 04/25/10 at 4:52 AM
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