Dear frigid friends and neighbors, As you may be aware, there is a BOE public meeting tomorrow night 11/19/14 at 7:30pm at the middle school auditorium. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the potential referendum for much needed capital improvements in the system. I have prepared some remarks that I hope to personally share at the meeting, and I want to share them with you today. Caroline and I are Chatham Music and Theater Booster members, parents, and long-time Chatham residents. The improvements under consideration will not affect our children directly; two are already in college and one is in high school. By the time the improvements are implemented, whatever they may be, Caroline and I will be empty-nesters. We hope that our perspective and thoughts might help your frame your own, no matter how you may currently feel about the referendum. Most importantly, we want to encourage you to attend this meeting and share your own thoughts, perspectives, and concerns! Sal and Caroline Arnuk Hall Road Sal’s Remarks: I would like to weigh in with some thoughts and perspective as a long time Chatham resident and parent of two students now in college, with one just a few years away. My kids have always been very involved in Performing Arts and Athletics. I hope my perspective is also interesting, because by the time these potential improvements are made , my wife and I will be empty-nesters; our kids will not directly benefit from these improvements. Chatham is an incredible town, and it is amazing how many prospective parents know this. These parents have all heard about our school rankings, our music programs, our athletics, as well as everything we do to keep our kids well rounded and wholesome. They move here dedicated to raising fine children, and they keep this town amazing. They also keep our property values robust. I want to talk about these improvements. It is my belief that we need to think of our school system as a garden. Gardens need attention. They need cultivating. They need investment. If you don’t constantly tend to them, and keep them maintained, they go downhill – and downhill with momentum. Through my years as a parent I have been at times disappointed when I would compare our facilities with those of our neighbors. I would note our fields, our bleachers, and our 40 and 50 year old auditoriums - with never enough seating, with roof leaks and old chairs, and even asbestos innards. We have a very unique opportunity now to finally do something about it. The not-for-long low interest rate environment allows us to refinance, access cheap money, and lay the foundation for Chatham to continue to be THE town to live in and raise children for the next fifty years. We have a unique opportunity to get away from a reactionary band-aid mentality, and to think bigger. Doing so will serve our children and prepare them for an ever more-challenging world, and it will keep our home values high. Doing so will benefit everyone – including folks like me who will soon be empty-nesters. We have a menu of much needed improvements that include a fixed up Cougar, new fields at the high school to accommodate our sports and marching band, fixing two auditoriums in vast need, and adding much needed classroom space for general programs as well as programs like STEM. We can choose a cheap option by band-aiding the fields and existing space – where we will lose auditorium seating, continue to be overcrowded, and still have to build out as we go (at higher expense)… or we can choose an option that once and for all adds proper fields, class space, and builds a new auditorium at the middle school that is state of the art, forward thinking, and even income generating. I am excited about that option! That larger option: - gives the kids inspiring performing arts space that demonstrates our commitment to them for the next fifty years. It sends the kids a message that we will always invest in them. - creates space for STEM and other needed curricular class space at the middle school. - moves the BOE to the middle school in the heart of Chatham, saving operating costs annually. - gives us fields on par with – not exceeding - any of our neighboring towns. - allows for expansion of the overcrowded elementary schools. - can be income generating – i.e. rented out to other commercial productions when not in use by our kids. - can bring business to our downtown. - will bring the community together. That option will do all I mentioned with a tax consequence of less than $200/year per household. To put that in perspective, this option requires a sacrifice on our part of about $4 per week – equivalent to the value of a beer or glass of wine. And this option is a small investment that we will make up in spades with our house values. And to be clear, if we “cheap out” we still have to spend millions in band-aids. And our taxes will still go up. If we “cheap out” we are destined for more overcrowding, destined to deal with kids that can’t play because the fields are in disrepair, and destined for not enough class space to accommodate new initiatives (like STEM) to help our kids compete in a tougher world. We have a choice now to not remove options for the kids, but instead build a foundation to serve them for years. We have an opportunity to invest in them and nurture them, and make them the most well-rounded fine young men and women in the country. We have an opportunity to prepare them for the best universities and careers, and to prepare them to impact the world. We have the opportunity to do this for by sacrificing a beer per week. As I said when I started this long ramble, my kids will be long gone by the time these improvements would be implemented. Still, even Caroline and I can see the importance of committing to give the younger children the same opportunities and competitive advantages our kids had. The world keeps getting harder. We need to invest to give our children the best tools to make it better. Thanks for listening!
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 21:49:14 +0000
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