We, like many other people, have a tendency to see the bad side of things and fail to acknowledge all the positives, specifically in our community.
But if you sit back and access what we have in our community we really have a lot to be thankful for. Our schools are lacking in a lot of ways, particularly student achievement, which was proven by recent scores on state tests. These evaluations were published in the last two editions of the newspaper. However, our school district has plans to improve our scores and accordingly our students’ educational experiences.
One of the hot topics now is consolidation of Magee and Mendenhall high schools. The issue has been approved by a vote of the Board of Education. The big issue now is how all of this is to be paid for. What the district would like to see is the approval of a school bond issue in the amount of $39 million. Whether the issue passes or not, we are told there will be a consolidated high school.
The school board contends that it is their obligation to provide the facility and decide how this best needs to be accomplished, despite what or how people in the community may feel. It is the stance of this newspaper that a consolidated high school with state of the art facilities is the way to go. So we support a bond issue as well as a consolidated high school.
At the same time some folks in the community do not feel their taxes should be increased to support a new consolidated high school. Some of them have valid reasons. They send their children to private schools and are already paying for an education.
The bottom line, however, is that what we are doing is not working. Board, you are responsible for that. You have been in office long enough to have impact. Of course, Covid-19 hit us, but the world did not stop and the county schools spent millions of dollars on what this board has determined to have been a failure—distance learning. If you look back at the scores, it is evident that it was unsuccessful.
Just building one new big high school is not going to remedy the situation either.
Our system of educating our children was ineffective prior to Covid and was only compounded by Covid.
It is beyond me as to how someone would be willing to commit our county to a project this size and not be committed to continue to serve past the current term of office on the school board. Sure, they may get beat for their position on issues. But the idea of whether they would seek another term should not be based on a positive vote in March. That is, if these people are really committed.
So if the bond issue fails we are told the board is going ahead with a consolidated high school. It will just lack some of the bells and whistles. The fact that kids can not play athletics at the new facility without the bond funds is unfortunate but it may be a reality.
We are for the consolidated high school for the right reasons. It will allow the community to be competitive in recruiting new business here. It should offer a broader curriculum for our children and present a better environment for learning. We hope the bond issue passes.
