by Ellen Main
Loveland City School District has an operating levy on the May 2 ballot this year. Because Loveland has not passed a school levy in nine years, they are in desperate need of these funds to maintain their current high quality of education. If the levy is not passed, they will move towards State minimum services. Our students and future students deserve better than this. As a mom of two young Loveland students, I am witness to the outstanding and dedicated faculty, staff, and administration in our community. My experience at a recent school event illustrates this perfectly.
Waiting anxiously for the show to begin, I looked around at all the other parents, siblings, grandparents, and other family members sitting in the Loveland Primary School gym and thought how grateful I am to live in this community. After the heartwarming show, during which the look of pride on my son’s face almost made me tear up, we walked through a gallery of children’s art—vibrant paintings, oil pastel drawings, and construction paper weavings covered the hallways from floor to ceiling. My son showed such confidence in finding his art on the walls and explaining it to his family. Then, he led us to his classroom (Ms. Miller, Room 9), where he showed us two beautiful books, one created by him (about koalas) and one created by his classmate, a biography about what makes my son special (my son created one about his classmate too). He proudly showed us all his work, which had an Australian theme (each class had a different country). All of this thanks to the hard work, energy and creativity of Lauren Alten (music teacher) and Kayla McClary (art teacher) as well as the classroom teachers, custodians, administration—too many people to mention.
The “Around the World” Showcase is an example of what makes Loveland Schools such a special place to be. Music, theatre, art, athletics, physical education, robotics and so many other programs we may take for granted won’t be possible much longer if we don’t pass a school levy. Think about the most memorable and important moments of your elementary and secondary education—most likely they were made possible because of school levies being passed.
I was lucky enough to have some extraordinary teachers in the Perrysburg School District in Northwest Ohio. My most memorable experiences had to do with music and theatre, which would not have been available without teachers having the freedom to use their creativity to benefit students both in the classroom and through extracurricular activities. Maybe yours have to do with sports, science club, art, student government, none of which would be possible without our talented educators, who would slowly be cut due to lack of funds. We cannot deny future generations these experiences.
Right now, the employees at Loveland Schools are doing amazing work despite not having the money—92 percent of all Ohio school districts receive more money per student yet we are in the top 2 percent in the state on the Ohio Department of Education scorecard. We cannot keep the talented and hard-working people we have in Loveland Schools now if they feel stressed that they may lose their jobs or if the class sizes are so big they are spending all of their time managing student behavior rather than teaching.
With the passing of the levy on May 2, we can keep not only our schools strong but our community as well. Voting yes for Loveland Schools on May 2 is a vote for our students and future students and also for the well-being of our entire community.
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