Dear Editor:

“Pride In The Past, And Working On The Future.” It’s a sentence I first read as a high school student at BRHS. Coach I.J. Pinkham had it highlighted on his basketball preseason packet.  Later, the school adopted the phrase as its official motto. A big banner with those words hung in the lobby. It was the first thing that caught one’s eye when entering the building.

I’m a proud Boothbay graduate. My experience was second to none. Memories spanning grade school up through all the pomp and circumstance of Graduation and Grand March ceremonies. Not to mention all the memories on a basketball court.

Those memories are priceless to me. But they are my own and my classmates. They are not the memories of the 509 students currently enrolled in the Boothbay school system (enrollment data accurate as of Oct. 1, per AOS 98 Executive Assistant, Evelyn Andrews).  

Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor residents have a big decision to make on behalf of the 509 students on Nov. 7.  I aim to vote in their best interest as I believe it’s our civic duty to ensure that these kids have the opportunity to make the same memories I did.  The best way to ensure that is by voting Yes on Questions 1 and 2.

I also want to touch upon casting a No vote in hopes that it leads to a regionalized school system.  When I think of regionalization, I can’t help but reflect on what happened when we essentially shut down St. Andrews Hospital and regionalized our local healthcare services to Miles Hospital in Damariscotta. 

I have attended Long Range Planning committee meetings exploring the prospects of regionalization and it appears to be a non-starter for the surrounding towns of Edgecomb and Wiscasset. And I’m glad. Regionalizing healthcare has been detrimental to our peninsula, and I believe the same would hold true for regionalized education.

“Pride In The Past, And Working On The Future.” That’s a call for the townspeople of Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor to vote Yes on Questions 1 and 2.  If we do, then those 509 students will be able to make some priceless memories of their own.

Tanner Grover

BRHS Class of 2001