By The Board of Directors
Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation
The Los Alamos Public Schools (LAPS) are requesting approval of the General Obligation (GO) Bond in the amount of $30 million dollars. The Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation (LACDC) Board of Directors and its Executive Director enthusiastically support the community approval of these funds for our school system. Education is the cornerstone of the success of our community and the ability of our community is directly connected to quality education.
By voting “yes” on this bond, you are not electing to increase the current tax rate (as it will stay the same), but simply endorsing that LAPS continues to move forward on their significant brick-and-mortar projects that touch all schools across both Los Alamos and White Rock in some way.
As LAPS Superintendent Jennifer Guy has explained, the state awarded Los Alamos Public Schools with $35 million in supplemental construction funds for White Rock schools, but LAPS can only accept these funds if the GO Bond passes this November. It would be a significant economic failure to bypass the opportunity to bring those funds into our community.
Beyond leveraging the state’s funds to support our public schools and maximizing the reach of our taxpayer contributions, which is smart in itself, continuing on the path to upgrade our schools in a brick-and-mortar capacity is critical for continued economic development of our community. It goes without saying that investing in our youth is an investment in our local economy, our workforce, and our future. Education has always been intrinsically linked to economic growth, and the Los Alamos Public Schools have consistently provided quality education that makes living and working in Los Alamos County such a draw to so many parents.
Our excellent school system is a strong selling point for new hires and their partners who may be employed at Los Alamos National Laboratory or at local businesses or technology, healthcare, education, hospitality, retail, and service positions in our community.
Let’s demonstrate the community’s commitment to supporting our LAPS students, teachers, and staff with better physical infrastructure, and promote future teacher recruitment with state-of-the-art educational facilities.
Early voting opens on Oct. 10 and Election Day is Nov. 7. Please vote in favor of the GO Bond this Fall. For a healthy community we need outstanding public schools.