I am writing in to respond to the editorial from Shawn Geer regarding the Nashua-Plainfield school district’s long range plans. I am one of the most conservative members of the Nashua-Plainfield School Board; I can see that we, as a district, need to do something to remain viable. I would like to present some other facts and information that I feel is more representative of the issues.
First in forming the committee the administrators set specific criteria they felt most beneficial to the productive meetings. The committee needed to include both mayors, someone who would represent younger citizens as well as older citizens, fine arts, athletics, academics and overall community leaders. Included were: Mark Moine (architect) Tim Neil (my edit Plainfield Mayor), Shawn Geer, Dawn Koob (school bard), Cindy Hannemann (this is my edit I felt full discloser was needed Assistant high school softball coach), Sue Baldwin, Chris Skilton, John Phyfe (my edit Nashua mayor and whose wife is employed by the school), Randy Strabala (again my edit superintendent), Erik Smith (again my edit high school principle) and Ed Anderson (again my edit elementary/middle school principle).
In looking at this list, it is a very respectable group of individuals from each community.
Mr. Geer stated that he was asked to serve on the committee that would look at a long range plan to decide if there was need to improve the schools and what the improvements entailed, which in turn would hopefully improve our communities. He also stated that he did not attend many meetings.
My personal feeling on this is, if he was offended by the diversity of the committee and felt it was biased then why did he not address this at the beginning of the meetings? If there was an objection I did not hear of it. Also, his comment that he did not attend many meetings bothers me, as a leader of the Plainfield community he did not feel the meetings important enough to attend. This could have taken a different course and the Plainfield community could have been better represented.
Along with this Shawn could have declined and given someone else the opportunity to voice an opinion and work with the group.
There are members of each community that would love to see their hometown businesses flourish. In order to do this, it is essential we work together as a community and school to come up with ideas to make this happen. Each town has seen a decrease in business as well as students. With the current trend and declining students it does not take a Masters in Theology or Education to predict what will happen if we are not proactive.
I grew up in the Plainfield district and loved it. My parents/family moved and I graduated from Nashua School before the consolidation and now I live in Nashua with my family. I drive 90 miles a day to work, do I need too? Absolutely not, this is a great district to raise kids. I will not have my kids driving to another district for any reason when I can help prevent it.
There are many students who choose to be a part of FFA, FCCLA, band, choir, speech, TATU, besides all the regular sport activities that are available. These activities may be the area that they excel in and keeps them interested in school. For some students this may be the only time they have to feel included, this time is important socialization for them.
I am not saying this is more important than academics, but it goes along way for developing a well-rounded individual. Many students are active in multiple sports, band, FFA and 4-H and still maintain high grades. I guarantee that the students who find these activities important are working hard academically so they may continue to participate.
The editorial also addressed athletics and academics. In my humble opinion, if you take the athletics from students many will not stay in the district if they really want to participate in extracurricular activities.
I, for one, love to watch the Huskies in action whether on the field, or presenting for speech or watching my son get first place in state in FFA for his tractor. Where will he ever have that experience again if not for the school?
From what I have seen, kids who are out for extracurricular activities have a higher standard academically to maintain if they want to participate in anything. They are expected to make the grades, and most do.
I noticed a focus on the athletics in the editorial; it seems he should have attended a few more meetings. If he had, he would know that a science/tech/middles school wing with new and remodeled classrooms is also a high priority and would probably be done in conjunction with the wellness center.
So is the focus really on athletics? I would say definitely not. Is it a part of the whole, yes it is.
Again, to clear up another issue addressed on the houses purchased, he stated that they will most likely be demolished. This is also not true; they are nice houses and may be auctioned and moved. A few more questions and research would have answered a lot of questions instead of assuming.
The Board Members of Nashua-Plainfield and staff of all three schools do not want to give up on our schools, businesses or member of our communities. Many of us grew up between the two communities and they are important to all of us. At this point they are more important than writing both off as bedroom communities.
We will work to ensure a better outlook for both communities and hopefully add businesses that can thrive in our small towns. We can only do this with everyone’s help and backing. I encourage everyone interested to attend the community information meeting information meeting regarding facility improvements that will be presented on Feb. 3, 2011 from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. in the High School gymnasium to get accurate information. We welcome your input.
Lisa Franzen,
N-P Board Member
Well there you have it letter to the editor number two after my letter. I might comment latter but I'm tired.
Ok I’m beginning my address to Ms. Franzen’s letter and decided to start with this section here where she talks about her love of the Plainfield district.
“I grew up in the Plainfield district and loved it. My parents/family moved and I graduated from Nashua School before the consolidation and now I live in Nashua with my family.”
Why does Ms. Franzen bring up where she grew up and that she loved it? I never questioned where she grew up nor did I question her love of community. So one can only assume that she did so to imply that I do not love Plainfield and to point out that I didn’t grow up in the community and as such am suspect and so everything I say if it opposes those views of the ones who grew up here should be discounted because I am an outsider and do not love my community.
It is true that I did not grow up in Plainfield. I grew up in the Kansas City, KS metropolitan area some 330 miles from here. So one might ask how did you and your family come to move 330 miles from a major metropolitan area, to rural Iowa?
Before I answer that question I want to talk about the community I grew up in. I went to primary school grades k-6 at Mark Twain elementary in Kansas City, KS. Even though it was in a large city and large school district it was smaller then our own elementary school. The summer after my 6th grade year we moved to a bedroom community of Kansas City, KS. We had a Stillwell address but we physically lived in Stanley. The school district I attended and graduated from was Blue Valley Community Schools. It was a little larger then the Nashua Plainfield District with 2 elementary schools 1 middle school and 1 high school.
It was a growing district and today Stanley, Ks has been annexed and absorbed by Overland Park, KS. The primary reason that Stanley, KS grew so fast was because it was a bedroom community and people wanted to move out of the city but still be close to their jobs. That was one of the reasons we moved out there. It was a little closer to my dad’s job and he didn’t like the city nor the street lights and my parents didn’t want me to attend the Kansas City, KS public schools not because they didn’t have good facilities, which they did and still do, but because of poor academics and gang problems that plague the inner city schools.
So how did I end up so far from where I grew up and so far from my family and roots? Mainly my job as Pastor of First Baptist Church in Plainfield, Iowa. In the fall of 2001 I was finishing up seminary in Kansas City, KS and searching for a church praying for the one God would call me to. It was around December of 2001 that I got a call from the area minister in Iowa asking how I would open to moving to a town called Plainfield, IA. I told him I’d have to talk it over with my wife.
So we got out the map and looked up Plainfield, Iowa, googled it and saw that it was a long way from where we grew up but it had all the things we where wanting. It was rural, it was a bedroom community, which where I come from means small town near a big city which means you don’t have to drive 100 miles one way to get to the hospital or grocery store or anything else, the elementary school was 4 blocks from home. It was ideal. So we prayed about it felt the Lord might be leading us here and I called the area minister back and said yes we were open to it.
Well I talked to the search committee I liked what they had to say they liked what I had to say. Two couples took a road trip to KC to hear me preach they liked what they heard and we immediately took to these two couples after a luncheon meeting. The search committee called Yolanda and I up to interview we had a wonderful home cooked meal in the home of one of the church members and In July 2002 I came up to candidate with the family they loved it, I loved it and the church loved us and called me and my family to be their pastor.
When we pulled up on August 5th 2005 in the pouring rain with our belongings stuffed in a U-haul 330 miles from our roots we discovered that the church had built a swing set in the side yard of the parsonage just for us. To even insinuate that I don’t love the community I live in well lets just say one should do some research first.
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