I believe a child’s education starts at birth and continues until you pass away. I also believe it is very important that the child and parent have a strong start. This is the reason I support Ready4K. As you would know, Community Education ECFE offers excellent classes to new parents. Statistics prove over and over that children will continue to excel in their education if they are given a good well-rounded start. This is why the school board continues to support Early Childhood programs such as welcoming WSU staff into Madison Elementary providing all day childcare within the school. I think we should work at growing this program into other elementary schools as well. After passage of the referendum last year, the school board immediately voted to restart all day every day kindergarten in all the school districts elementary buildings. Again, stastistics show the return on the dollar invested in kindergarten pays back many fold in children who are more eager to learn, fewer behavior issues and successful students graduating from high school and college ready to live and work in our communities.
We have instituted a long range planning committee to address needs at our high school over the next 10 years. We have worked with our School Nutrition director in bringing equipment and menus up to a new level while staying within a strict budget. We have upgraded a 20-year-old media center to a modern functional area more suited to the 21st century. As this committee finishes its task, it will begin working with elementary schools addressing their current and long range needs following the facility study performed by Wold Architects.
The Middle School is our newest school building. It has extensive technology within but that is 10 years old now with minimum upgrades. We will look at upgrading equipment in this building as well before we get too far behind.
Early Childhood programs, all day kindergarten, key kids, keeping all our elementary schools open takes money and dedication. Upgrading our school buildings, our textbooks and technology requires diligent use of the tax dollars we are given. I have supported these efforts wholeheartedly though there has been argument against some of these positions. I will continue to support what is best for our school district but most importantly what is important to our kids.
