The media is always being taken to task for not including enough 'good news' in their reports. We take that seriously, as evidenced by the Appeal's recent story about Carson City cchools entering an agreement with the Brewery Arts Center.
The agreement allows Bordewich-Bray to rent the basement of the old St. Theresa's church, now owned by the Brewery Arts Center, for library and other uses until the school can build a permanent addition to replace its moldy portable classrooms.
Both parties deserve a big community thank you for creatively solving this problem.
While this is good news, it is announced with a cloud overhead. We hate to rain on the fire of enthusiasm over this deal, but we'd like to remind the community that the problem is far from solved. Carson City school officials have watched the community and school populations grow by leaps and bounds in the past decade. A check to the horizon shows more growth coming.
The schools are in the unenviable position of having to rely on bonds to fund new buildings. This means we'll be voting on a bond initiative in November to approve the $3.6 million it will take to build a brick and mortar addition to Bordewich-Bray, replacing the portable classrooms and providing our children with a decent school environment. We must do so. It is sadly overdue.
The even larger issue is long-term need. Carson Middle School has an entire village of portable classrooms on its campus. We suppose that an argument could be made for portable classrooms if population projections indicate a spike that will reverse within a few years. This isn't the case in Carson City.
School officials know how tough it is to get the community to tax itself for more and better school facilities and have used past monies wisely. As a community we simply cannot respond to school population growth by adding a sea of portable classrooms. The high quality education received by our kids should be matched by the quality of the school buildings themselves. It speaks volumes about us as a community if we can't provide decent school buildings for our kids. We don't want our kids to grow to adulthood thinking that portable classrooms are normal. They aren't. They are no more than a Band-aid school officials apply because they have no other choice.
Allow yourself to be happy about the temporary arrangement at Bordewich-Bray. Be pleased with yourself when you vote yes for the November bond initiative. We'll consider it good news when it passes but we won't be thrilled until all our schools get what they need to take care of the most important people in our community.
