School closings create challenges
Few issues create as much emotion - anger, frustration, sorrow, nostalgia - as closing schools.
When I heard a few weeks ago that Monroe Public Schools would be proposing school closures as a way to save money, I knew it would create a challenge for our newsroom.
The best way to cut through the emotions and get down to making good decisions as a community is to get good information into as many hands as possible.
Or, put another way, among the worst enemies of good decision-making are rumors, innuendos, half-truths and outright falsehoods. It’s human nature that information travels rapidly through a community - and that much of it can be wrong.
Monroe’s school board has a tough month ahead of it. The decision on the school closings is expected for March 13. Between now and then, lots of emotion will be displayed as school supporters lobby to keep their buildings open.
We’ve reported on the proposals several times, when they first were announced, when the details were proposed earlier this week, as well as reaction stories. We have more reactions stories, from Christiancy and South Monroe Township schools, planned for today’s paper.
And over the next three weeks, there will be more stories, both providing more details of the proposals and trying to answer as many questions as we can.
We want to do our part to make sure the community has the information necessary to make good decisions.
This is a decision that will have a profound effect on Monroe’s school system and on its neighborhoods. Families that lived next to a neighborhood school, attending that school for generations, will find themselves living next to an empty building.
At the same time, taxpayers aren’t willing to support schools that are not efficiently run - and that may mean closing small schools that aren’t operating at capacity.