West Elk Bond Issue Vote Nov 3

[pepelect]

The issue of school finance is before the voters of the district of 282 on November 3, 2009.  The issue to vote on is presented by the board that would use general obligation bonds to finance a $5,550,000 project to build an elementary school adjacent to the existing high school. 

[Sarah]

I'm not going to vote on this as I'm undecided still and honestly, my vote is between me and my booth, but I will say that this came at a bad time.  With the economy the way it is, we've had one of the worst summers we've had.  Hour declining and a lot of people around have lost their jobs and a lot of Elk county is an aging county, no offense to the older people, but a lot of them are living on social security and medicare and if this new health care bill goes through, not only are their costs going to go up on the medicare with no COLA adjustment, but what they have to pay out of pocket is going to be higher along with other costs of living and I know, like my dad, a lot of people that were relying on their investments that they had for retirement, they lost most of it with the stock market and so find themselves without the money they thought they were going to have and the cost of all things going up and we're wanting to add bills and add debt?  While the school needs something done, I don't think now is the time to do it.  I think it would put an unnecessary burden on some that don't need that right now and most of the ones I've seen touting the "yes" vote have either quite a bit of money or don't live here at all.  Maybe own land here, but don't live here. 

Anyway, there's my .02 and all I care to say about it.  Just bringing up some points from what I've seen.

[Wilma]

I do live here.  I do not have a large amount of savings.  I do try to live on my monthly income, soc. sec. and a very small pension.  My savings are for unexpected expenses.

In order to keep our school in Elk County, I believe it is imperative that something is done now, not when things are looking better for us old folks.  You young people who are struggling now, you will be struggling ten years from now and your children will be bussed to another county if you don't do something about it now.

We old people have been through what you youngsters are going through now.  We struggled when we were young and our children were in school.  Yet, we tried to do what was best for those children.  My two who completed their high school at North Elk and West Elk, say that they would have had it no other way.  They feel that consolidating the high schools into one school was the best thing to do.  They didn't think so at the time, but they can see it now.  Consolidating the grade schools now is the best thing for our children and the best way to do that is to provide them with a new building that is theirs, not a building that used to be Severy's or Moline's or is just a temporary thing for the next 50 years.

[sixdogsmom]

There is no guarantee that the consolidation will keep the state from stepping in and combining this district with another due to low enrollment. Period! A new building will not stop that, and wishing will not stop it. Enrollment has dropped every year for many years now. The handwriting is on the wall, this district is shrinking.

[pepelect]

There is no guarantee that the consolidation will keep the state from stepping in and combining this district with another due to low enrollment. Period! A new building will not stop that, and wishing will not stop it. Enrollment has dropped every year for many years now. The handwriting is on the wall, this district is shrinking.

So we should shrink the school to match the population.  Last time I checked 2-1=1.  One is a smaller number than two.  So by deduction one elementary is smaller than two.   So lets shrink the district buildings to match the student base.  Would you say that this downward trend is going to last ten more years?  If so in ten years we would still be a larger school than our neighboring school Elk Valley and they have been going to be shut down by the state for the last thirty years. Why is a smaller footprint, with less costs per day of its useful life, a bad thing?