by Katrina Mendrey, Hamilton
Hamilton is experiencing growth. The facility and safety needs of our schools are changing. Our district has supported amazing programs and employs excellent teachers that set our students up for success. We as a local community have an opportunity to step up to ensure our childrens’ future is sound, and our community’s is strong, by supporting the proposed levy and bond to make needed improvements to school infrastructure and secure important programs.
The future of our community is only as strong as the kids we raise. If you don’t have kids in the schools right now you might not know about the District’s needs and some of the programs this bond and levy will support. The levy will support such programs as Early Kindergarten and the Keystone After School Program. These programs keep parents in the workforce, especially important as we experience labor shortfalls. It will also help with teacher and staff recruitment and retention as well as the maintenance of existing facilities protecting taxpayers investments in our public schools. The proposed school bond will help our district address outdated and dangerous learning environments by building a new middle school and updating the high school. Now is the time to make needed improvements because as we have learned deferring costs for construction and maintenance only makes the tax bill higher.
I know there are some folks out there that are skeptical, even distrustful after a history of broken promises and misprioritization of our schools’ needs and honestly I feel you, but don’t make our kids pay for those misguided decisions. Walk by the middle school during recess, watch the hsd3.org video, talk to a parent with a kid in Keystone or early kindergarten, consider how these buildings could be repurposed for the benefit of all community members, then vote. Vote. Vote.