I have a unique vantage point in the Ferndale School Bond election. I am a parent of two Ferndale School District students AND a Realtor in this community. I would like to ask you to look at the Bond Proposal from my perspective for a moment.
First, the Realtor perspective. Good schools not only help with market values but it also helps businesses! I for one hate watching Ferndale businesses close down one after another leaving yet another vacant building or office space. Businesses invest in areas with great schools and a thriving community. Over 90% of home buyers include school boundaries in their decision making process for choosing a home. If we continue to allow our school buildings to deteriorate Ferndale will lose more great teachers, valuable community members and less businesses will want to invest in our town.
Second, the parent perspective. Like many of you, I have children in the Ferndale School District along with our two sons we have 9 nieces and nephews attending these schools. Both of our boys started their school journey at Skyline, and they along with their cousins will all graduate from Ferndale High School. I am so proud to say that! What I am not proud of is our current school facilities. Our schools, kids and teachers need our help! Our kids spend 30+ hours a week in these buildings that have roof leaks, pest infestation and in some classrooms no heat.
Let’s learn from the Skyline children who spent three years standing outside of stores and knocking on your doors fundraising to build a track that most of them didn’t even get to use! They did it for the younger kids growing up behind them, their little siblings and cousins. If this communities young future is willing to dedicate so much time and energy to better their schools we need to invest in that passion and drive! Investing in a larger high school and safer schools will benefit not only the kids but will also benefit our town.
It takes all of the communities help to take care of these public schools. Our town’s future needs a safe, clean and healthy place to learn and grow for all the students, teachers and staff in the Ferndale School District.
Thank you for hearing me and for considering my vantage point. This vote is important and I hope you will be sure to approve the proposal and mail your ballot by February 12th!
Donna Gilday
Ferndale
Letters to the Editor submitted to My Ferndale News are the opinions of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the publisher of My Ferndale News.
I propose the following common-sense approach:
1) City of Ferndale school board first proves it is capable of getting maximum STUDENT educational benefit from taxpayer money
2) Organize a vote on the bond
3) If it passes, City of Ferndale school board publishes monthly Statement of Proof that they are providing the maximum STUDENT educational benefit from taxpayer money. If not, the funding is cut immediately and all taxpayer money is refunded to the taxpayer.
P.S. help me out here, do higher home prices means fatter or skinnier Realtor commissions?
Just one question – please elaborate on how to measure maximum student educational benefit. Personally, I can form an opinion on this topic by taking tours to see the state of facilities, looking at budget performance YoY, talking to Ferndale district staff, and of course talking to my children and their friends – the students in this case. However, it doesn’t lead me to a clear quantification of educational benefit – how do you propose to measure this?
I don’t want to assume this is a rhetorical question, hence my invitation to elaborate. However, if it is possible to measure this objectively, don’t you think school administrators and district overseers would already be using this measurement to tout the benefits of their school and/or district?