The PRIME Initiative: What it Means to Berkshire Schools’ Students
I grew up in our very own Chardon, Ohio. Through the years, I’ve learned something special about our town. It’s not just a city; it’s a family.
I grew up in our very own Chardon, Ohio. Through the years, I’ve learned something special about our town. It’s not just a city; it’s a family.
By going to elementary school at St. Mary, a few blocks away from the heart of our city, I was exposed to a group of people who loved and cared for one another.
By working at a restaurant on Chardon Square, I have met and talked with members of our community I see day-to-day. I run into them at the grocery store and I’m given a friendly smile from a familiar face.
I have met so many people through this community and I feel like the city of Chardon and I share the same heart.
My world was turned upside down during my freshman year of high school at Berkshire Schools. Coming from a Catholic school, I was thrust into a community with no specific religious affiliation and strict dress code of uniforms. I was completely exposed and I had never felt more uncomfortable in my life. As a senior looking back, I am thankful for that exposure.
The one thing Chardon failed to teach me is how to transform. Chardon has been the same as I remember it from 10 years ago: friendly, relatively quiet and altogether unified. So, going to a public high school with about three times the amount of students was challenging. But, through created and failed friendships, I have become the person I am today. I am a mixture of Chardon andBurton. I have the values and morals I learned as a child from Chardon, and the friends, sense of humor and music taste from Burton.
These coming years in Burton, something astronomical to the community is taking place: The Berkshire PRIME initiative.
It is a collaboration with Geauga Growth Partnership, Berkshire Schools and their community, and Auburn Career Center, as well as Kent State University and other businesses.
Berkshire Schools will bring together the five communities of Montville, Thompson, Burton, Claridon and Troy to form a “super-school,” housing a state-of-the-art, pre-kindergarten-through-12th-grade experience previously unseen in Ohio. The PRIME building will be located at the current KSU – Geauga campus and a brand new building will be erected over the course of the next three years. Approximately 1,250 students will come together to create a broader community ethnically, racially and socially.
Jody Miller, parent and head of the levy committee agrees.
“This will bring so many things like unity, opportunity, pride, just a sense of community and mostly opportunity for our kids,” she said.
I view the PRIME initiative as an amazing opportunity to expose the kids of Berkshire Schools to more opportunities for growth and exploration. I see kids just like me, coming from 10-plus years in one unchanging community to a new one, where there are three times the amount of opportunities to be explored. Although I will not be attending the brand new facility, my little sister will be.
Evelyn Milano is a sixth-grader at Burton Elementary School. She has been attending Burton Elementary School since fourth grade and here’s what she has to say about the upcoming change:
“I feel good about this change because we’re gonna have more opportunities to expand the learning experience. Also, there will be a better drama club so I can pursue my dream of being an actress,” she said. “I’m also excited because the new building and campus will bring more opportunities for sports, and with the new field, practices and games are gonna be more fun.”
Thanks to the generous donation of $2 million from Great Lakes Cheese, Berkshire will have an athletic facility, featuring its first real track rather than the beaten path around the current football field. There will be a performing arts center as well, so my sister’s dream of being an actress will have a better chance at becoming a reality. Additionally, there will be advanced technology and better security systems to keep students safe.
Although many students at Berkshire High School participate in the College Credit Plus program and Auburn Career Center, through the PRIME initiative, 1,250 students will have the opportunity to pursue a career while still working on their education. From the collaboration with Auburn Career Center, students will have access to two new and high-demand programs that have been previously unavailable: nursing and Computer Numerical Control fabrication, which is the use of robotics and computers to operate machinery in factories.
Personally, I have been attending college and high school simultaneously for two years.
By taking three or four classes a semester at KSU-Geauga, I have 41 college credit hours, making me almost a second semester sophomore. I have saved my parents approximately $30,000. Because of the addition of PRIME to the advancement of Berkshire Schools, my parents can take those saved finances and put them towards the education of my young sister.
Michael King, principal of Berkshire Jr./Sr. High School said, “It will allow us to give future generations an appropriate learning space to fit all learning styles and get out of the industrial mode all of us went to school in.”
He also is hopeful it will change the educational system to fit every student’s need and education will not be “one size fits all.”
Through the PRIME initiative, Evelyn will have the very same opportunity I was given, to not only explore possible careers and discover passions, but to avoid the wait for college graduation to start her journey into the real world.
Claire Milano, 18, is a Berkshire High School senior who will be attending Ohio University in the fall with a major in journalism and a possible minor in Spanish.
