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Letter: Consider what school vote will mean to pupils
Op-Ed · August 31, 2017
On September 12, our community of West Branch School District residents will have an opportunity to make a decision.
Your participation in this decision is of profound importance as it provides feedback to our educational leadership your feelings about the collective vision to advance the West Branch Community School District headlong into the future.
The plan placed before voters looks forward into what to some is sometimes unfamiliar territory as we are not as engaged in the educational environ as are the teachers and administrators with whom we often hold in high esteem. It isn’t fair to view this plan measuring it by the same standards we are comfortable with based on our own experiences; the metrics have changed. What once was is no longer in a rapidly changing world.
It doesn’t matter which organization you choose to reference, the story remains the same: the United States no longer leads the world in college completion by our students. According to the U.S. Department of Education, the United States now ranks ninth out of 36 developed nations. Doing nothing does nothing to improve upon this.
I urge each of you to do your own research on the bond, our district, and the trends nationally which track our student performance. Consider looking at reports.educateiowa.gov/schoolreportcard as an online resource prepared by the Iowa Department of Education. In that you will see how the state has assigned a rating of our local schools. It would be a mistake to suggest that student learning isn’t tied to the facilities in which they learn; today’s students need more than desktops and notebooks.
This bond vote may include work that is not by itself of value to you based on your own experience or implicit bias. Those same parts you may not deem as important may be the most important to the next person in line. The bond as a whole, however, looks to the future by placing our students first. I am truly impressed with the amount of energy our students place into so many programs whether they be academic or in the arts. The success of the schools programs have outgrown the schools capacity to house them.
Regardless of your position on this vote, I hope you will consider what it means for the children of this community. The teachers and administrators of this community have done a commendable job adapting to the constraints of their environment; and the students of this district are by far some of the most remarkable and partaking you can hope to meet.
Pete Swisher
West Branch
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