A mistake the MACCRAY School Board made when forming the facilities working committee was that the committee wasn't given the parameter that any options discussed had to address correcting the problems, especially the educational ones, we are facing in the district, such as unequal class sizes, the lost instructional time because of teachers needing to travel between sites, special needs services, gifted student needs, music program benefits, etc.
There are no educational benefits having two elementary buildings for the MACCRAY district. Remodeling does nothing to correct the previously mentioned problems our students face every day.
A unified elementary building and unified campus for the MACCRAY School District would. At the same time, it would provide the MACCRAY district and students needed environmental improvements and enhanced learning opportunities.
This vote is bigger than any of the individual communities, it is a vote to strengthen rural Minnesota. Our students in rural Minnesota deserve to have equal opportunities. They deserve to have those opportunities daily, not every other day or in emergencies like they do now in the MACCRAY School District. If we don't provide our students the same opportunities they can get elsewhere, families will move.
When the vote is over, my hope is that everyone in the three communities of the MACCRAY School District will be able to walk down the street and know in their heart that they did what was in the best interest of the young people in our district. They are the future of our communities and rural way of life. I know I will be able to because I am voting yes on Feb. 7 for our students and our future.
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Tim Smith
Raymond
