It’s good to see responsible and talented community members step up and offer assistance to the Riverside-Brookfield High School board and administration with the planned renovation. People like Chris Robling, Karen Layng and Larry Flam, and all the others who have volunteers their services, are to be congratulated for their efforts to help the district manage what will be a major project.
Unfortunately, there are some others?”perhaps well-meaning, if uninformed?”who have begun to circulate inaccurate and potentially damaging numbers and opinions about what they think RBHS needs or what it should cost. …
Education is more important than ever. Times have changed, and our sons and daughters now have to compete against students from places that 20 years ago were simply little colored shapes on the map. Today, many of the most talented programmers in the country come from India, Bulgaria and a dozen other countries that were never considered before as “competition.”
Teaching has changed radically. Students study calculus in high school, and they need proper laboratories to get an adequate grounding in the sciences, so that they can take advanced studies in college.
Girls now have teams and play in leagues just like we boys did, and that means more facilities are needed.
Unfortunately the state creates mandatory standards for life safety issues that it doesn’t fund. All schools must put these improvements into place. … The better and safer the schools, the better the students do, the greater their successes down the road. The more kids that get involved in comprehensive athletic and extra-curricular activities at the school, the better they do later in life. …
RBHS, under this administration, has risen to be recognized as one of the best schools in the state. We are all proud of that. Presumably, everyone who lives here wants their kids and their neighbor’s kids to do well. Education?”more and better?”is the key. The community is being given, right now, a chance to do what needs to be done at a cost that will never be so low again. …
Patching the high school is just like buying cheap tires for a car. They’re not as safe, they don’t last as long and they cost more per mile in the long run. …
Let’s give this referendum a resounding “yes.”
Donald Spatny
Riverside
