Dear Editor:

I’m writing this letter in support of the CSD Trustees’ decision to fund repairs for the elementary school heating and ventilation system. We need to maintain our schools and ensure the safety and comfort of teachers and students. For sure, the numbers of kids are down, but there will be hundreds of kids in our schools for the foreseeable future. Certainly, changes will need to be made, but the buildings we have are the buildings we will need to use for the hundreds of kids that we have, and that we will have, for decades into the future.

If you go into the elementary school today you will find hundreds of kids and dozens of staff going about their work. It will continue that way for the foreseeable future, even if some classrooms might be closed off or spaces otherwise consolidated. The heating system is old and needs to be replaced.

There is no scenario in which a cheaper solution will work. We are not going to keep the kids home if the system breaks down in the middle of winter. We need to stay out in front of the problem. We’re not closing schools. We’re going to carry on with educating our kids, in the community. The money proposed by the trustees needs to be spent to maintain the basics of a safe and sound learning environment in the elementary school, for our students and their teachers.

Bruce MacDonald

Boothbay