Letter: Students need community support by Lindsey Lieck
Editor:
I am senior at RHS. I am a student council leader. I am a concerned citizen. I am a Nordic skier, a musician and a tennis player. I am all of these things because of my education. Each program I participate in needs faculty, advisors and students to function. Am I forgetting anyone? Yes, the community. Some say it takes a village to raise a kid, and I truly believe that it takes a community to run a school.
A school and a community have a symbiotic relationship. Students rely on the community to support our events, enjoy our productions and appreciate our successes. And the community relies on us to provide workers, public events and a boost to the economy. I have read many letters from business people detailing how the latter will suffer if the relationship is threatened. As to the former, if the referendum fails, schools and their students suffer. The relationship affects the way students learn and how we, the students, perceive our community. Students want to be proud of their school and hometown.
There is so much to be proud of at RHS alone, that it is hard to imagine the community not supporting it. We strive for continued academic achievement, especially in our participation in the Advanced Placement program. Rhinelander has been presented with the honor of being one of only 529 districts from all of the U.S. and Canada to be awarded with the placement on the AP District Honor Roll. Additionally, we continue to build on our athletic achievement in the GNC conference and beyond. When the community does not come out to support our programs, we feel bad about ourselves. Just like a family, when there is a lack of support there is a lack of success. Don’t you want the students to be successful? I’m sure most do, but please let your vote be action to your words.
Furthermore, we are not talking about wanting new equipment or facilities. We are talking about the need to stay competitive in the world of education. In order to do so, we must fund the programs that make high school special: our electives. Electives are not just classes that students take for fun. They are required in all core subjects and allow us to explore career opportunities. High school is about finding out who you want to be and how you are going to get there. Without passage of the referendum, many of the opportunities to do so will be lost.
The opportunities we have in high school are determining factors in how likely we are to succeed either at college or in the work force. Please help us keep these opportunities alive. We are kids, but we stand strong and we need the community to stand beside us, support us and vote “yes” on Feb. 19.
Lindsey Lieck, Rhinelander
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