To the editor:
I recently attended the community forum about the upcoming vote to close Lakeview Elementary and, over the course of the two hour meeting, a few things became clear to me about this important vote.
Teachers at Hardwick Elementary spoke passionately on Monday night about their long struggles to provide resources to their students and their frustration at not meeting the needs of those kids. Kids’ lives and futures are at stake here; we can all do better.
To level the playing field, some people would close Lakeview, and soon Woodbury Elementary, to concentrate all our resources at Hardwick Elementary. There would be some cost savings from reducing the number of campuses, and those savings could fund additional programs and student supports in Hardwick. Unfortunately, this strategy only leads downward. Many of our district’s best resources involve long-standing relationships with the landscape, parents, and community members of Greensboro and Woodbury. To close their campuses would alienate these communities, eliminate resources, and close valuable doors. Many students in those communities would not choose to be bussed to Hardwick, reducing enrollment and canceling out some of the initial cost savings. School reputations and property values decline.
A better path is to bite the bullet and pony up the hundred dollars it costs to keep all three of our campuses open. Once we do that, we already have a road map for what comes next. Intradistrict school choice allows parents in all of the sending towns to choose the school they want. With some problem-solving around busing and scheduling, the resources of all three campuses become available to everyone. Rather than alienating members of our community, schools specialize and offer programming that brings in some of our large homeschool population. Our schools’ reputations rise, spurring families and businesses to pay top dollar to make our community home.
Closing Lakeview doesn’t do the job we want. It doesn’t take into account many of the variables that are in play. It just shuts the door on many of the resources that Greensboro is capable of sharing with the whole school district. Instead of closing Lakeview, I’d like to encourage more of our district parents to take advantage of intra-district school choice to give their children access to Lakeview’s unique opportunities for their children. You should come to Lakeview; it’s great. Vote “no” on closing Lakeview.
Jay Modry
Greensboro
