Guest Column: The Right Thing
Now is the right time to do the Right Thing for Berkshire Schools. You know the Right Thing is writing your grandma a thank you note for your birthday gift, helping someone pick up his or her groceries that dropped in the parking lot, or apologizing for something you maybe shouldn’t have done. You know these things are the Right Things to do because they make you feel good inside; they are those things that make a difference in another person’s life.
We, as the Burton, Claridon, Montville, Thompson and Troy communities, have a chance to do the Right Thing for our children and our communities. By doing the Right Thing, we will be giving our students a chance to compete successfully for any opportunity available to them because they will be educated in a new facility with state of the art technology, innovative teaching approaches and an environment geared for learning creatively and collaboratively.
By doing the Right Thing, our students will have the option to secure an associate’s degree applicable to state colleges in Ohio before graduating from high school. Thereafter, they will have access to reduced tuition at Kent State University.
By doing the Right Thing, our students will have access to Auburn Career programs that will provide skilled training on the Berkshire campus with support from local businesses. This will encourage our students to remain here.
By doing the Right Thing, our children will be in a facility that will be LEED certified. This means it will be less expensive to operate, will conserve energy and water, will produce less waste and will support a healthier environment.
All of this encourages positive outcomes for both students and staff. By doing the Right Thing, our students will be attending a school that is extremely safe and secure with the most modern advances in security.
By doing the Right Thing, we will be helping our communities to be fiscally responsible in that our local communities will be funding only 45 percent of the cost of our new facility, while the state will be co-funding the other 55 percent.
By doing the Right Thing, we will have the money to continue to support this facility for the life of the loan.
By doing the Right Thing, we will help to increase our property values per realtors and studies about schools and school facilities.
All of this will be accomplished while increasing enthusiasm and interest in part of the Berkshire Schools community.
Many have already done the Right Thing so we can be where we are today with Berkshire PRIME. Our school board, superintendent and school treasurer have done their research. Data has been collected and analyzed by the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission.
Our local politicians have found a way for Berkshire Schools to have the funds needed to make this project a success in a state that normally is not creative about its approaches to school financing. Geauga Growth Partnership, Kent State University, Auburn Career Center, University Hospitals and Key Bank have given their support on the Berkshire PRIME initiative and what it will do for our communities and local businesses.
So let’s finish what has been started and do the Right Thing. On May 8, vote “Yes” for Berkshire Schools so that on May 9 we can have that feeling you get when you know you did the Right Thing.
Linda Stone
Burton Township
