New School Won't
Solve the Problems

There seems to be much debate recently about the Bethel school consolidation issue. While I'm sure we have our best talent working on this difficult topic, there's one thing that continues to puzzle me. Why in the world are we structuring our "solution" around the same flawed and inefficient principles (not principals) that hamstring our schools today ? Simply creating a new public school, whatever form that takes, will quickly result in the same predicament we have now. The problems cited over the past decade have been: unfunded mandates, Supervisory overhead costs, demographics, union demands and more recently, the CLA. A new school system fixes none of these, nor does it look like these issues will go away in the near future. The professional and administrative advice we've received to study, duplicate and enlarge the current flawed system, in my opinion hasn't been time or money well spent.

Regardless of whether we tuition our children to Randolph or build a new school, I hope the idea that was repeated several times at the last board meeting of converting our beloved school into a large Regional Special Education Center isn't pushed through without serious debate. An alternative that many in the community would rather see is having the facility turned into an independent school focused on a mission of educational excellence. Independent schools like Thetford, Sharon and St. J. Academy appear to be better suited to navigate the challenges of the future plus it gives parents a local alternative to the public education system. While Bethel is going through all this planning, effort and investment, let's not abandon all the wonderful benefits a small local school adds to our community.

Lang Durfee

Bethel