Our children need us as parents, friends, neighbors and a community to stand with them and support their education.  They are our future engineers, nurses, doctors, law enforcement, teachers, robotics technicians, scientists, physicists and community leaders.

Right now we have let our actions affect their futures by not acting on their behalf and supporting our schools with the funding these children deserve.  Now, before you stop reading because you don’t want your taxes to go up I will urge you to read on and hear me out.  Let me say that until last year I have never voted for an “override” for our schools and I now feel in my heart I was very wrong for doing so.  This is our school collectively.  It is not an “us” and “them” situation.  It is a “we” and “OUR” situation.  This community is US and these are all of OUR children and we are neighbors, friends and now I ask that we be partners together in helping OUR children achieve all the best that this school system can offer to them.

I was raised here in Templeton, many of you were my teachers, leaders and mentors, neighbors, friends and were just like my parents (that’s how things were way back when).  I am so thankful that you payed it forward so that my education, along with my friends and classmates, could become all that we were meant to be. We had a greats music, arts and sports programs.  We even had a cutting edge business program that allowed me to leave high school and go right to work in the banking field.  Don’t our children deserve to keep up with today’s technology and cutting edge programs that will allow them to go to higher education or into the work field with all the tools that deserve to have?  It’s now OUR time to pay it forward.  It is my generation’s turn to pay it forward and the generation coming up the ranks in the elementary schools and this community as a whole.  Below are my thoughts from last Thursday evenings budget meeting that I posted on Facebook to my friends and family and also to a parent group I belong to “Taking a Stand for our Kids”.

“I have to say that I am really disappointed that I was the only parent at the budget meeting tonight (and last week also) and tonight’s was probably one that all parents and neighbors should have heard. Each principal submitted their budget and explained how things were going working off of a very minimal budget ~ I was saddened by what our kids have to be taught with ~ Books from 1993!? SERIOUSLY?? This is where we as parents and a community need to rally around our future and that is OUR school. I will also say how proud I am of all the positive things I heard about how our teachers, administration, staff, custodians and everyone involved with our children got together and thought outside the box to come up with solutions to keep our kids education at a top level. I think they need a round of applause and more importantly our full support.

How can the school be better about informing parents and the community about meetings that are happening? Are they not posting enough, sending home flyers, connectED, in the newspaper ~ what can they do to help spread the word about these meetings, parent meetings ~ anything that we need to be informed about. I would love to hear this and pass it along to the Superintendent. I am asking you to let them know how they can be more proactive in getting the word out there.

I know some of you are sick and everyone is busy, but this is a budget CRISIS in OUR school district. There are over 1,000 children in this entire school system I am throwing out a challenge. I want to gather a minimum of 200 parents to be at the Middle School auditorium at a date to be chosen in the near future and this very informative meeting can be replayed on the movie screen and Ruth Miller and the Principals can come and we can have a question and answer session after. Who’s with me? I will be posting this every day on my FB pages in the parent group and anywhere our community will hear me. Please, can you do the same and share this post and ask parents and neighbors to come. You don’t have to have kids in this school any longer to come to these meetings ~ we need you, it’s OUR school. Let’s be involved and get our children the funding and education and supplies and teachers they deserve.”

So, I will repeat.  I am issuing a challenge.  I want to see 200 or more  parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbors and OUR community gather together at the Narragansett High School KIVA on Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 6:00pm to view the TV 8 airing of the budget meeting from this evening, February 7th.  Superintendent Miller and the principals from each school will be on hand to answer any and all questions that you have.  There will be daycare available.

This is OUR opportunity to be a part of the process, participate in OUR children’s future, collaborate with the school and bring our questions and help with the solutions.  We as this community can partner with the school and volunteer for tasks that can be done to help save money and in turn help our children know we CARE about them.  They need us.  We need each other.  Please, come to the meeting and bring someone with you.  Let’s fill that auditorium and make our kids proud.

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