From Chris Soukup

Monroe

To the Editor:

Please join me in voting YES to the school referendum on April 7th! The passing of this referendum will be crucially important to the future of Monroe. I feel that we are at a tipping point. We have momentum moving towards a bright future for our community. There are several large projects either recently completed or currently underway that will help attract residents and continue pushing Monroe forward, and offering high quality schools is vital to fully realizing that success. It would be terribly short-sighted to now undercut the funding that our students and teachers need.

There was a lot of unfortunate division surrounding the building of the new high school. I believe our current school leadership has done a great job of rebuilding the trust from our community and improve our district’s performance, all while having less resources than ever before. District leaders have done what we’ve asked. Now, we need to support their efforts and give our school faculty the resources they need to succeed in an ever increasingly difficult job. I have four kids in the district, and I can attest that we have some of the best school staff anyone could ever hope for. I’m scared for how many of those fine educators we will lose should this referendum fail.

I understand that people are burdened by taxes and that some people will have to vote “no” out of personal necessity, but I believe the best way to alleviate that burden is to attract growth and new development in the city’s tax base. We are very fortunate to have several local builders and developers right now that are investing in the infrastructure and work force to build badly needed new homes. I believe that if we continue to offer a high quality education in great facilities, coupled with all of the other great things our town has to offer, families will choose Monroe. Please vote YES to the referendum on April 7th, for the future of Monroe.