One recent afternoon, I glanced out my window and saw our six-year-old neighbor, all knee-pads, elbow-pads, and helmet, trying to learn to ride his new, no-hands scooter. With him was his grandpa, a constant, anchoring presence. The boy stopped, started, gave up, tried again. It took time and the grasp of his grandpa’s reassuring hand when suddenly, he did it! I couldn’t help myself: I burst out my front door and applauded them both.
On December 8, Lexington voters will decide whether to approve a debt exclusion for a new Lexington High School (LHS). The case for a new school is straightforward: The existing campus is unsafe, overcrowded, irretrievably deteriorating and educationally inadequate. Only rebuilding will cure these deficiencies. If we wait, the costs of rebuilding will only escalate. We have an excellent plan, thoughtfully and transparently developed, for moving forward. It will accommodate fluctuations in student enrollment, and it will operate free of fossil fuels, saving taxpayers money. If we vote down the debt exclusion, we will forfeit some $110 million in state funding and waste hundreds of millions of dollars Whac-a-Mole-ing repairs on a school that will remain cramped, inadequate and unsafe. Now is the time.
My own boys graduated from Lexington High School years ago. We are grandparents now, to little ones who live elsewhere. We are grateful to the generations of residents who invested in our well-regarded schools. The foundational education they made possible launched our children and their classmates into life.
Like my young neighbor who needed his grandpa’s support to learn to ride his scooter, upcoming generations of Lexington’s children need elders like me, whether grandparents or not, to support and invest in their future—our future, really. Because the services we all pay for—our community center, police and fire departments, public ways and conservation lands, recreation facilities and, yes, our public schools—interweave to make this town worth living in.
Growing up is hard. Let’s not make it harder by leaving the children of our community to attend a school that does not support their learning. Let’s join the towns around us who have brought their high schools into the 21st century. Let’s make our plans to vote YES in the December 8th election. And when our town cuts the ribbon on our new high school, let’s be there to cheer our children on.
Well said, Jeri!