You Can't Make This Stuff Up

We are big fans of books at our house.  We have bookshelves in nearly every room.  The contents are constantly changing as we add new books and pass others on. It will be a long, long, time before anyone in our family owns an e-reader.  When our children need help with a spelling word, we tell her to look the definition up in the dictionary – Webster’s, not Google. When it is time to write a research paper, we visit the library for resources and information.  We think it is important for children to learn things in context, not just from a quick search on the  internet.  It is easy to cut and paste data and call it a fact, but in order to really understand the information it needs to be in context.

There has been a lot of debate about what the real facts are regarding over-crowding in the Windham School District.  Variable facts are only as true as the information we can gather to support them and then they must be provided in context, otherwise they lose their relevance.  The access to information we have today, combined with the immediacy of the internet and social media, make it possible to take facts out of context and call them true. 

But I am not writing to give you facts about the projected enrollment figures in Windham Schools.  I am not writing to tell you about the expected tax impact, low bond rates, or high water mark.  I am not writing to talk about population growth, cost per student, or school capacity.

I am writing to ask you to consider one simple fact.

Why would anyone make this stuff up?  

I guarantee no one in Windham wants to be in this position. Nobody moved here thinking we would need two new schools in seven years.  Nobody wants to pay higher taxes.  The whole situation just stinks.  When I think about my two  daughters being at the Middle School next year, I get nauseous. When I think about my next tax bill, I panic. But when I see people questioning the validity of the need for a new school and the reality of the situation, I get angry.  Vote no if you want.  But please do not undermine the years of hard work,  olunteer hours, and taxpayer dollars that have gone into the solution to build a new 7/8 school.  I have been actively involved in education in Windham for eleven years, and I can assure you, no one is making this stuff up. 

And that is a fact.