Making a Statement about Whitefish Bay

Posted: Nov. 2, 2009

Tuesday Nov. 3 is such an important day for our community. Together, we will be making a statement about our commitment to educational excellence, one of the long-standing hallmarks of our village. It's a statement that will be heard and felt for years to come.

 

What message will we send? What will we be saying to our students and their teachers about the adverse conditions they work under? Anyone who took the time to tour the schools recently saw the need. These improvements, the product of more than two years of rigorous study, are vital to bringing us up to the standard being set by surrounding school districts.

 

What will our vote say to young families shopping for a place to buy a home? Ask yourself how you feel about a community when you read about a rejected school bond referendum. Do you want to buy a home in that area to raise your children?

 

And, finally, what will our decision on Tuesday say about us? That we believe in dire consequences and inflated taxes if we do our duty to educate our children in a safe and proper setting? No one is disputing the need here, only the cost. The suggestion that we pay for this out of operating funds is advanced by opponents. What this fails to say is that it would mean cutting teaching staff, increasing class sizes and eliminating programs in the curriculum.

 

I believe, to paraphrase Dickens, that the worst of times may be the best of times to do this and that its cost will be a bargain compared to the cost of catching up later. And not for a minute do I believe the price we’ll pay will be nearly as high as the 71 cents per thousand that the District has estimated, since the interest rate, the construction costs and the state aid loss are all set to worst case levels.

 

In 40 years, I have put four children through this school system and seen them all successfully launched into the world, thanks in part to the education they received from this district. I am deeply grateful. And how many times over 40 years was I asked to increase taxes to give the school buildings some attention? Only one other time. Buildings are part of the cost of education. Let's be sure ours are not only beautiful and traditional on the outside, but they are up to date on the inside.

 

I urge you to use your vote on Tuesday - sooner if you choose to vote absentee - as an opportunity to make a statement about a positive future for Whitefish Bay. Use it to say that we are determined to safeguard the tremendous assets we’ve been given by previous generations and to make their precious gifts work better in a new era.

 

In this election, we are depending on each other to deliver the right message and make this the kind of community we all want, no matter what our differences on the details. Vote Yes Yes!

 

Thanks. And my best wishes.

 

Douglas Armstrong, Chairman

Yes Yes Nov 3 Committee

www.yesyesnov3.com