58 Days Until The Vote

March 7, 2010

Good Morning! I’m writing this from Colorado. My in-laws have a place out here and with frequent flyer points that makes for a very inexpensive getaway. It’s 6:00 am here and my 3 boys aren’t up yet. Can’t tell you the last time I was awake before them…maybe never! So why am I writing this blog instead of having a cup of coffee and enjoying the mountain view and no doubt brief solitude? Well, I’ll tell you…

I woke up this morning thinking about Jill Thompson. You may or may not know her. She was a Mariemont resident until just before the holidays this year. She has 3 kids almost exactly my kids’ ages. They moved to Colorado (about 3 months ago), and we were trying to hook up with them during our short trip out here. Unfortunately we couldn’t make it happen. Now, I was thinking about her for lots of reasons, but one in particular relates to this levy blog. In our e-mails back and forth about trying to get together, she made an interesting comment. Here’s what she wrote:

“Hey nan, how's it going? I hear you’re busy w levy stuff. Good for you... Tell everyone to pass it b/c I am living the alternative out here and it's not pretty. Merging schools w/ no notice, teacher cuts, less school day and program cuts. District is so big that no real community involvement. If they only knew about mariemont. Ok, real reason for my email....”

In addition to Jill’s situation, my brother’s kids’ schools in Indiana are making drastic cuts, my best friend from college, who’s taught her entire career, has her school in Minneapolis closing and all kids & teachers (lucky enough to have kept their jobs) merging with the remaining schools. The thing that struck me most is all 3 of these are super school districts - like ours. What I’m learning is this is happening everywhere, not just Ohio and certainly not just Mariemont.

BUT…and this is a big but, we have an opportunity to take this in a great direction. We have a chance in May to help our district adapt positively to what is happening to public education all around us. And what I believe is that my vote can help or hurt my kids’ education, my property value and the community in general. I’m choosing to help.

Well, everybody is now up and asking, “Mom, when are you getting off the computer?” Right now.