I am writing in support of the Onalaska School District recent levy.
I speak from personal experience when I say I know what it feels like to live through a levy failure.
In 2005, I was an employee of Onalaska Elementary School teaching kindergarten. That previous spring, a double levy failure doomed our district with very limited funds for our school. My son was a senior in high school and his last year was spent living with limited classes and extracurricular activities, sports that had to be paid for by parents, and a feeling of not being cared for by our community.
We all felt it; students who no longer had access to as many opportunities as other schools; athletes who had to pay to participate or not play at all if the cost was too high; coaches who did not get paid for their time, skills and abilities, thus requesting many of them to volunteer which they did; teachers who did not have everything they needed to do their job, thus requiring us to spend our own money to give our students the education they deserve.
Yes, we made it work. As school employees in a community we care about, of course we did. We love our community. We love our kids. We love our school and chose to live and work here on behalf of everyone.
My son graduated, went on to higher education and graduated from college. Thankfully, he’s doing well. I’m grateful for the dedicated staff that supported him and others through that year. But he has never forgotten what that felt like as an 18-year-old young adult. He knows what it was like to be passed over for other funds that were more of a priority.
There are many reasons to support small-town community schools. Of course they benefit everyone, even those whose children have now grown and possibly left the area. We are still here. We care about our kids and want to give them the best education we can. Of course the state needs to pay more, but it doesn’t. So, the responsibility is on us to take care of our own, take care of those who live around us, support them as best we can, even when it’s sacrificing to our pocketbooks.
I personally believe it’s worth it.
Cathy Murphy
Retired educator of Onalaska School District
