During graduation season, I enjoy reading seniors’ plans, impressed by the numerous scholarships many receive from local organizations to help them in their transition to real life.
Community support is important to child development and strengthens the mutually beneficial bond between community and student.
In fact, Washington state requires that a school’s enrichment programs be community-funded.
Quilcene School District voters are being asked to approve the replacement EP&O levy, which narrowly failed in February.
This measure rounds out a student’s education with enrichment program opportunities, such as performance, culinary arts and athletics, to discover and develop their unique talents with career opportunities that may lie well beyond traditional core curricula presented inside a classroom.
This is particularly important in a rural setting where so many of their experiences occur outside of the classroom.
Unlike taxes that are pooled in Port Townsend, Olympia or Washington, D.C., and redistributed by politicians, voter approval requires that every EP&O levy dollar collected remain with the local school district and used for education.
These dollars return multiple dividends.
Immediate dividends come from additional state-supplied Local Effort Assistance and State Forest Funds that first require a voter-approved EP&O levy.
Short-term dividends are the enrichment programs themselves that serve students of all ages.
Finally, long-term dividends are realized by the community through a combination of graduates trained in trades that directly serve the community and those that contribute in myriad other ways through their lifelong love for their home community.
Vote yes.
Bob Bindschadler
Quilcene