By CAROLINE M. BOYLE
LAMS PTO Vice President
Strong public schools are one of the corner stones of a successful community. The Los Alamos Public Schools are seeking approval for general obligation bonds valued at about $11 million. It is important to note that the LA school district has relied upon us the Los Alamos community for school renovation funding since 2009.
The LA Schools recently held open houses for the community members to see the current state of our schools. It was pretty clear where prior bond monies have improved our facilities and where renovations are still very much needed. For example about a year ago, the school board recommended the renovation of Barranca Elementary School, school-board-taps-barranca-renovation. Barranca initially made the state list of schools to renovate but the monies were later pulled back by the state citing an error in calculation. Considering a year has passed, the conditions on the Barranca campus and many other school facilities have degraded further making this bond even more crucial.
So if the need is clearly established, then the rational explanation for being opposed is to avoid paying higher taxes. The tax opposition is short-sighted and a “yes” vote won’t even raise our taxes in this case. There is an established link between good schools, vibrant local commerce and families which form a strong community and tax base. Los Alamos needs a strong school system to help LANL, local government and local business attract new and retain existing employees. All of us who are already here benefit from our healthy community. For that reason, I support the bond proposal and urge you to vote “yes” on school bond in January.
The bottom line is our district demographics continue to evolve, our infrastructure has aged and state government does not fund the improvements we need. If you live or work here, you benefit from ensuring the school district is the best it can be. Turn out to vote in the January 2017 school bond election and vote “yes” on school bonds for our community!
