YOUR AD HERE »

Vail Daily letter: Save Red Sandstone!

Mary Ward
Vail, CO, Colorado

My name is Mary Ward and I am the master teacher at Red Sandstone Elementary School. I have been a Vail local for the past 28 years. The purpose of my letter is to ask for help from all of the locals out there who care about the school.

As many of you know, without the passage of the 3B tax increase the Eagle County School District needs to make some drastic cuts to the budget to survive. In fact, they need to cut $5.5 million this year and $5.5 million next year.

One of the ways that they can save money is to close down schools. Last week the Board of Education met. There were many schools on the agenda to be discussed in terms of closing. After a sevenhour-long night, some of the schools were saved, rightfully so. Red Sandstone is among a few others that are still on the chopping block. In fact, Red Sandstone was the only school that they actually had the dollar amount figured out in terms of savings for the district.



Since the meeting I have spoken to many locals about my concern. The majority of them said the district would never close the only public school in Vail. I am here to tell you that closing Red Sandstone is a very serious and real possibility if we do not make it loud and clear to the board that this is not acceptable with the locals in our town. The Board of Education discussed closing our school two years ago and they are considering it once again.

I could spend the rest of this letter singing the praises of Red Sandstone, such as we were recently ranked in the top 13 percent of schools in Colorado according to a recent study viewed on coloradoschoolgrades.com. Or I could list all of the public service activities we do with the town of Vail to help our community.

Support Local Journalism



Instead I will stop there because I firmly believe that our reputation speaks for itself. Since 1977 we have been caring for and teaching the local children of Vail, Minturn and Red Cliff. This letter is for all whose children’s lives have been influenced by us, as well as those of you who do not have children, but a strong sense of community.

Together we can rally and save our school once and for all, so that the school board will never put Red Sandstone on the chopping block again.

On Jan. 11th the decision will be made. If you uld like to help, please write a letter or a quick note to the Board of Education in support of Red Sandstone. Go to eagleschools.net, click on the tab “About Us,” click on “Contact Us,” click on “Board of Education” and you will see all of their emails.

Thank you so much in advance for your support. The students, parents and staff of Red Sandstone will be forever grateful.

Mary Ward

Vail


Support Local Journalism