COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL • NOVEMBER 21, 2018 • 9A
PARENTS
from A1
cision from the district to
either close the school or
maintain the school because
it’s an investment. So we’re
just making sure the staff
and the community, in this
case the Latham community,
have a voice.”
On Nov. 30, the school
board will receive a packet
that includes information
about what it would look
like if the school remained
open, taking into account
the year or will keep it open
for at least the next fi ve
years. Th e fate of the school
will be discussed at the Dec.
3 school board meeting with
a decision expected to come
at the Jan. 7 meeting.
“Th e goal is to make sure
that everybody is heard,”
said Sullivan aft er the meet-
ing. “Th is is a very hard de-
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what the parents said in ad-
dition to maintenance costs,
technology upgrades and
class sizes; or if the school
were to close, looking at
where students would go
next year, what would be
done with the Latham prop-
erty and what would happen
to the current Latham staff .
Bridgens noted that the
document that has the re-
port will be made public.
Th e parents were instruct-
ed to go around the room
off ering up their hopes and
fears with the future of the
school. Th e idea that con-
tinued to come up was the
small size of the school and
how they see it is advanta-
geous for their students.
“I hope we can still keep a
small school option in town.
Class size is a big factor but
another factor, I think, is
overall school size,” said
Latham parent and school
board member Taylor Wil-
hour. “Diff erence if you’ve
got three classes of each
grade level you get into a
situation where the kids are
less likely to know the kids
walking down the hall. If
there’s one of each, even if
we get to the district aver-
age of class size or close to it,
there’s an advantage to being
a small school.”
Currently, Bohemia El-
ementary School has 486
students while Harrison
Elementary has 447. Dore-
na (pre-school through
8th grade) has 95 students
while London (kindergar-
ten through 8th grade) has
90 students; both schools
are over 10 miles outside of
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adding: “Being able to be a
part of their life and school
is amazing as a parent. I
don’t feel disconnected; I
know what’s going on. Or I
can message the teacher if
something is going on with
my kid.”
Napier is in regular com-
munication with the school
throughout the week
Whether getting an up-
date on an incident in
school, sending the teacher
a message or learning that
her son got stung by a bee,
she feels connected to what
is happening as her and her
husband both work full-
time. Napier feels that these
immediate one-to-one con-
nections would be lost in the
shuffl e of a bigger school.
“It’s not even about the
class size,” she said. “It’s just
the bigger school requires
way too much for something
that big to function. You lose
that personal, individualized
attention.”
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Parents also brought up
that if the school was to stay
open that they have hopes
for upgrades all around the
school that ran the gamut:
bathroom sinks, additional
staff support, exterior paint,
interior paint, security mea-
sures, cooling devices and
technology upgrades. Th e
district has $2 million in de-
ferred maintenance projects
for the entire district.
For parent Danielle Na-
pier, who has a student in
kindergarten and in second
grade, this is her fi rst year as
a Latham parent. Since mov-
ing out of the Springfi eld
school district, Napier has
seen her son go from feign-
ing illness in an attempt to
not have to attend school to
now wanting to go to school
despite being sick.
“It’s been a dramatic dif-
ference for my kids, myself
and the way I feel about
their education,” she said,
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