I have a hard time hearing about any child going without what we as Americans consider the necessities of life. But I’ll be honest, the idea of abject poverty is something I relate to third world countries or areas of severe economic depression. The fact that children are living under those conditions right here in Chenango County is something I have a hard time wrapping my head around. And I’m afraid to say it, but, until just a couple of days ago, I was blissfully unaware of just how much poverty touches our community.

At Tuesday night’s school board meeting in Norwich, Stanford Gibson Elementary School Principal Dara Lewis spoke about the challenges her school faces in both the current year and looking forward. We expect to hear that schools are focusing on continuing to raise test scores, academic achievement, literacy and math proficiency rates, so I wasn’t surprised when Dara listed this as one of Gibson’s challenges.

Her second, however, threw me for a loop and brought tears to my eyes.

Explaining first that this wasn’t a building or a district challenge, but one for the entire community, she said, “Right now poverty is affecting the health, behavior and social and emotional growth of our students.”