Letters to the editor

Opinion: Keep Saline schools great, vote yes on bond extension

Posted on Sun, Feb 13, 2011 : 8:30 a.m.

I would like to urge everyone who moved to Saline for the schools to remember that fact and vote “yes” on the Feb. 22 bond extension. We came here for the fantastic, dedicated teachers. We came here for the shiny new high school. And we came here for the first-rate programs and high test scores. We knew when we moved here that great schools cost money and in order to maintain the integrity of what we came here for, we need to vote “yes” on the bond extension.

Without technology upgrades, facilities maintenance and safer, newer buses will our children still get an excellent education? Maybe, but why risk those intangibles; those things that make Saline Schools rise above excellent to exceptional?

Will the enthusiastic, new kindergarten teacher still be there next year? Will our children still have 15 AP classes available when they reach high school? Teachers may be laid off and course offerings may suffer, when SAS is required to pay for unfunded mandates out of the general fund. The federal and state governments require that we have a compliant bus wash system, they don’t really care how many AP classes we offer. I care how many AP classes we offer, I care that the best teachers stay in Saline and I care that all of the items included in the extension can be paid for without my taxes increasing.

Please join me in voting “yes”on Feb. 22. We can pass the extension now with no tax increase and maintain the exemplary school system that we have come to expect.

Patti Tanner Saline