Editor:
I write to encourage voters to vote yes on ballot measure 3B.
I grew up in Cortez in the 40s and 50s. My first grade class was in the southeast basement corner of the Calkins Building, where the junior high kids were on the second floor and the high school kids on the third floor; I was in the first class of fifth graders at the new Downey School; my mom was the first principal at Manaugh Elementary when it opened in 1954; and I graduated from MCHS (now Cortez Middle School) when it was still a fairly new building. Our community was proud of our new schools and proud of the kids who went to them. Hard decisions were made by voters back then and the value of a good education won the day on more than one occasion.
Now we are given an opportunity to build a new high school to replace a building whose deficits are too many to list here. The cost to us will be half of what it would be without the BEST grant awarded to Re-1 School District by the state. This is a remarkable deal for us on so many fronts. It will be a very long time before our community can actually afford to build a new high school on our own, yet we will have to do just that in the very near future. And when that happens, the cost analysis will look much different than it does with 3B today.
Think about it. It is mighty hard to turn down a 50 percent off sale, and thats just what this is! Think about it again. Show that you value our kids and their education and vote yes on 3B.
MB McAfee
Lewis
Via email