Friends: Kent City Schools has enjoyed the support of a town where children matter. Where parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles rally around their children and attend art expos at the school. We buy wrapping paper, gift cards from the children. We watch in pride as a group of children sing to honor one of our nation’s greatest treasures: our veterans. Where families gather at the end of the school year and children play games, parents visit, and teachers and a principal give their time to help a child bounce on an inflatable or pull a duck from a pool of water and win a prize. This is our school. This is Franklin. The traditions, the culture, the values, they live in that building. They live in you now as you read this and remember back to when you attended this school, or as you drop off your child Monday morning, or as you prepare to teach next week. Our elected school board, our voice, and our superintendent have reached a decision to close Franklin Elementary. Many feel this decision was done in haste....that there was no community discussion on such an important topic where there has always been discussion. Kent is a town of thinking people. At its very roots, John Haymaker, with his family, began what now houses a university, a village of prospering new- and old- businesses. Kent is a place of ingenuity- of enterprise. Surely there are thinkers, enterprising men and women, who could be tapped for ideas on how to keep a building from closing, a culture from being lost. The time to act has come. People say: it’s already done. Who will listen? The decision has been made. Our democratic forefathers raise their heads from their graves and implore such talk to end. This is our school board. These are our tax dollars. This is our school. Let our board members hear your voice. Let our superintendent understand that this decision may not be right. A discussion with this great community is needed. Reach out to your school board: Rebekah Wright Kulis, Ryan Ferrara, Brian Boykin, Dr. Marlene Dorsey and Janet Rusnack, and ask for a dialogue. Dr Joe Giancola ([email protected], 330.676.7600) our superintendent, needs to know that people still care about a small school, on Route 43. I leave you with this: “And you, my father, there on that sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light. “ -Dylan Thomas No. No, Friends of Franklin. We will not go gentle into that good night.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 14:41:59 +0000
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