New Golding Mural Unveiled

By Joshua Walther

COBLESKILL - On Monday evening, the CRCS Board of Education met during their regular meeting to discuss Golding’s brand-new mural installed in the library hallway.

The mural, titled “The Clay That We Are Made Of,” features heavy Native American influence and draws its name from how the school is situated on historical Mohawk territory and finding connection through the people that one surrounds themself with.

The piece was created by Jay Havens, a Haudenosaunee artist that calls Toronto his home. CRCS first connected with him through the county’s Iroquois museum, and after accepting funding from Nicholas Juried, work began to create the mural and educate students on its significance.

Once the art was finished by Mr. Havens in Canada, the mural was then printed onto a vinyl that was shipped to Golding, where the faculty installed it in the place of their old artwork.

Stretching along the wall opposite of the library, the mural includes Mohawk pottery designs in the Woodland School of Art style, and features a Hiawatha belt and two row wampum, smoke dancers, butterfly shawl dancers, Haudenosaunee Olympians and poets, and both traditional and contemporary Native American dress.

Additionally, Golding’s art classes all contributed their own butterfly designs that Mr. Havens incorporated into the mural, and every social studies class learned about Haudenosaunee history and the Woodland School of Art last spring.

Every Board member was in full support of the new addition to the school, with Board President Bruce Tryon saying “That is absolutely spectacular. I commend the work that was done on that.”

In other news, Superintendent Sickles shared the district’s upcoming budget calendar highlights, with their first talks beginning in February of next year.

He noted that just like previous budget cycles, the first Citizens’ Budget Committee meeting will be held on February 2nd, and their first draft budget will be presented to the Board on February 10th.

These steps will be repeated twice more throughout February and March, with a potential special meeting in April in case the state releases information that changes the district’s priorities, and the final vote for adoption will be in May.

Board member Aimee Yorke encouraged the others to recommend any changes to the budget cycle, and she cited both Max Horning and Jason Gagnon as wishing that important talks around staffing should have happened sooner than they did last year.

President Tryon voiced his thoughts, believing that the process shouldn’t happen earlier, but they simply ran out of available dates to discuss big changes between drafts.

Superintendent Matthew Sickles affirmed his sentiment, and further noted that the Board is able to make changes to the schedule if it’s agreed. However, with no recommendations being brought forth, a motion was passed to accept the budget calendar as it was presented.