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Not a Done Deal

Education is about teachers, books, and programs! As the saga continues over the options for the School Utilization Plan, let’s remember education is about teachers, programs, and community support, not the buildings in which it is conducted.

The neighborhood elementary schools of Island, Jeffery, and Ryerson clearly need better heating, installation of air conditioning, roofs that don’t leak, improved power to support computers, and safety improvements. Those improvements don’t require building new schools to the tune of $60 million—those are improvements that can be accomplished with relatively inexpensive renovations to existing schools.

Parents and taxpayers need to band together and say “No” to this plan of essentially building two new schools and mortgaging future education budgets. I ask our town officials to give us a plan that causes the least disruption to students, keeps youngsters in their neighborhood schools and earns the support of tax payers for a superior education system, not superior school buildings.

Here is an example of how it could potentially be done: Keep the three neighborhood elementary schools open, moving 4th grade to Brown and 6th grade to Polson. For the elementary schools, knock down but don’t replace the temporary classrooms at Island and Jeffery. Renovate the permanent school structures as necessary—$5- or $8 million per school, saving a small fortune and providing more than enough money to support the repairs and renovations the three schools desperately require.

Closing our neighborhood schools and throwing our students into five years of educational turmoil is not a done deal!

The neighborhood schools need to be saved and Madison’s school system needs to return focus on education—teachers, books, and programs.

Charles (Chip) Walz

Madison