To the editor:

Many in our community have voiced their wish that Langley Middle School continue in its present role, or even an expanded roll by housing younger children there too. The school board has decided for financial and logistical reasons that we need to close that facility, and, I assume, sell the downtown 23 acres to promote the future solvency of the district.

The decision is being attacked; some want to change it by changing the make-up of the board.

I think attacking the board’s decision in this way would be incredibly divisive.

We don’t even know at the moment what it would cost to bring LMS up to something near current building safety standards. Advocates must address that dollars-and-cents issue before they start throwing bricks. We simply don’t have the bottomless pockets needed to base the decision on emotion or self-interest.

After we find out what it will cost to bring the buildings up to code, we will still have the cost of maintaining those buildings as they age even more. I can tell you from personal experience, getting old is not cheap.

Once you get to the age of LMS buildings, making them “good as new” is a fantasy. In my opinion the possibility of making them safe is questionable. (Very preliminary LMS engineering reports can be found on the district Web site.)

After hundreds of hours of discussion and study, the board says we need to centralize the district to cut costs. Fewer administrators in newer buildings will help. Synchronized class schedules with all facilities on Maxwelton Road will reduce our transportation bite, which exceeded state reimbursements by more than a quarter million dollars last year. (What is that? Maybe four or five teachers?)

Since my son graduated 10 years ago we’ve dropped from a student population of about 2,400 to roughly 1,600. As most of you know, the number of students is virtually the only source of school funding, and school fixed costs, like yours and mine, are not going down.

South Whidbey High School was built to accommodate more students than now comprise the middle and high school populations. If the various entities involved are told by the superintendent and board that we are going to make the transition in the fall of 2010, period, I believe it can be accomplished and at least two good things will result; we will save a chunk of money that can be put toward educating the community’s children, and we can curtail the divisiveness that threatens to turn a transition into a war.

Jamie McNett

Clinton