Letter to the Editor: Support school board's proposal for a new elementary school

(The following Letter to the Editor has been submitted by Margaret Betteridge of Decorah):

I would like to respectfully disagree with Paul Scott's recent editorial "I Was Wrong— but Now I'm Right," regarding plans for construction of a new elementary school.

From a retired teacher's perspective, it does not make any sense to me to divide up our public school campus into several locations. Constructing a middle school out near Vennhjem would mean that parents might have children in three different parts of town. This causes many hassles for families, for buses, and also for teachers who may work in more than one building during the day. Sports and other extra-curricular activities often collaborate between the middle and high school grades before or after school. Having a middle school located out of town would only create more inconvenience for busing, and unnecessary traffic between these two locations. (Imagine a young high school driver, or a busy parent, who will need to drop off a middle school sibling out near Vennhjem, and then an elementary sibling at Carrie Lee before proceeding to the high school every morning.)

It makes the most sense to me to keep our school campus as centrally located as possible. The School Board's latest proposal will allow plenty of green space in the place that is now occupied by the John Cline building. The Shareholders and Decorah School Board have agonized over the site location for several years. They have created an excellent plan that takes into consideration many factors, such as bus traffic, student safety, convenience for teacher and student collaboration and future viability of our downtown. I agree with Lyle Luzum's opinion, " A school in easy walking distance from the center of town activity is vital. It brings life."  

I would encourage interested citizens to attend or volunteer to serve on Decorah's Shareholder's committee in order to understand the 'big picture' of this complex issue. We need to move forward with a unified plan and put our children's best interests first, rather than get stuck in an argument over who is 'right'."