To the editor,
Hopefully our Pay It Forward Committee can help to answer the questions of our community, but remember we cannot speak on behalf of what the school is going to do outside of the school bond. That is not right for us as a committee to speculate, nor fair to the school board and school administration. We can only present to you what we know about the school bond and what has been shared with us from the architecture firm that is working on the project.
I understand the communities’ concern for having kids in two buildings instead of five buildings when it comes to safety. In theory, having the kids spread out limits the risk of a larger numbers of kids being harmed if we have some type of disaster. The problem is that we cannot predict when a disaster is going to happen or the type of scale it would affect our kids. We cannot predict Mother Nature, but we might be able to stop a gunman by having more advanced security systems in fewer locations.
What would happen to our security if we can put forth more money toward secure entrances for the high school, middle school, and elementary school in the newly built offices? Would the security be more up to date and allow our kids to feel safer? Would we spend less money securing the new entrances than trying to fix up five different entrances? Would we have savings to put towards other issues if we only have to staff three entrances instead of five?
These are valid questions that we can try to answer, but will always be judged by the communities’ opinions. Now I am by no means a security expert so I therefore cannot fully comment on the cost of what it will take for both projects, but I will talk to the architecture firm and see if I can get you some type of answer for the community. I will work on this as fast as possible, but also remember that the committee is made up of volunteers that have families, jobs, and other responsibilities.
A second concern in the community is the space and ability for the Early Learning Center to accept more students. I can’t comment on what the Early Learning Center wants to do because I am not involved with them nor is the school. I believe the only thing the school does right now is lease the building to them. If the bond were to pass then I believe the school district could gift the south grade to the Early Learning Center. This would double their space and eliminate the need to pay rent. I think any further concerns with the Early Learning Center would have to be directed to them.
Please also take advantage of our website to take a look at what the tax implication would be for you. Remember that you also need to contact the assessor’s office or their website to see what your tax base is. That tax base is not the same as what you think your residence or farm ground is worth. Don’t hesitate to contact the committee if you don’t have a computer to do this or make sure to stop at one of our beautiful libraries located in Grand Junction, Scranton, Rippey, and Jefferson.
Our committee is looking to help promote how these buildings would build on our beautiful communities. In order to sustain great communities you have to improve and grow those communities. Staying status quo with our buildings will keep our communities status quo. To quote JFK, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the FUTURE?”
Tanner Lawton, Co-Chair, Pay It Forward committee, a volunteer-run organization
