Windfall 8/27/22

In my 8/2/19 post I recounted a return visit to the high school at which I started my science teaching career 50 years earlier – Hillsdale High School in north central Ohio. I found little had changed, at least in terms of the facilities. But unbeknownst to most, plans were being developed to replace the district’s two grade school buildings (actually former K-12 schools before the early 1960s consolation) and the high school building (built just after consolidation) with a state of the art K-12 building. It would be built on the high school's football field and open on the first day of the 2023-24 school year. The 1960 high school building in which I taught chemistry, physics, general science and advanced science (shown above from across the parking lot for the new k-12 building) will be demolished after that.

But how could the school district suddenly afford such a project? The district continues to be 99.99% farming? The district had not received a gift from a wealthy benefactor or grants from the state or federal government. The funding would come from tax money to be generated over the next 20 years by a natural gas pipeline that will cross the district.

I led the development of the first web-based middle and high school curriculum on Man-Made Global Atmospheric Change in the mid-1990s under National Science Foundation funding <https://peterubba.wixsite.com/sciedresources>, and have been a long-time advocate for the replacement of carbon-based energy and nuclear energy with renewable energy. In fact, while I was a science teacher at Hillsdale High School I placed an exhibit in a prominent display case that showed a mountain of trash and smokestack emissions pouring out of a cornucopia, which was considered by many as very controversial - as I was told directly many times. Still, I understand the excitement the new school has generated and hope it enables high quality education for the district's youth, especially in STEM areas.

The full story about the district's new school building is available at:

https://www.times-gazette.com/story/news/2021/07/15/rover-pipeline-funding-hillsdale-locals-new-one-campus-building-project/7963775002/