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13. The sewage lagoon is beyond its maximum capacity now.
14. According to actual enrollment, Planning District 9*8 projections and the birth rate, enrollment is increasing and will continue to do so. This increase affects the high school as well.
Ideas were presented at the meeting about building a new middle school, building a middle school with a vocational center (we give Piedmont $250,000 per year for approximately 44 students) and adding mobile units. The suggestion was also made to examine the possibility of building a K-3 primary school, and keeping the present elementary school as a 4-8 intermediate school.
Dr. [David] Gangel shared that, pending budget approval, an architect will be hired to give shortterm and long-term cost projections of the various possibilities, so the public can better make decisions.
The members of the PTO acknowledged that these are tight times, locally and nationally, and the concerns of 650 petition-signers who don’t want rising taxes. Appreciation was also expressed for the large landowners, the farmers, the retired people with no children in school and the weekenders who support public education through volunteer time, donations to projects and willingness to pay a little more taxes for the sake of our country’s ftiture.
The PTO asks that those who signed the petition; the Board of Supervisors; business owners, including farmers; and all Rappahannock voters tour the school. Seeing the problems first-hand may spark new solutions. The task of educating the children falls upon all of us who have an interest in the survival of economic prosperity and democracy in America.
Young Americans will be competing in a global economy in the 21st Century. Without excellent, high-quality public education, the American Dream is in grave danger. The PTO is proud of the dedication our teachers and administrators have to preparing our children for the challenge of the future. And in this limited, imperfect world, the PTO invites the voters of Rappahannock to work together to creatively solve the problems before us.
Please call Rappahannock Elementary School at 987-8259 if you are interested in a tour.
LAURIE MARSHALL
DIANA CORBIN
School PTO
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