New Letter to editor of Nashua Reporter

The following is my letter to the editor I submitted to the Nashua Reporter in response to Mr. McMichael and Ms. Franzen's response to my original letter.

Dear editor,

It is good to see that my letter sparked some lively debate and that is always healthy and good. Apparently though I was not clear enough in my previous letter and my main point was missed.

You will notice in both Mr. McMichael’s and Ms. Franzen’s letters there are not any statistics offered. Ms. Franzen wrote that, “it doesn’t take a Masters in Theology or Education to predict what will happen if we are not proactive.” Of course she never voiced what would happen, instead ominously insinuating that something dreadful will happen like our communities will cease to exist which could happen but I think is highly unlikely. I never advocated against being proactive. In fact I believe both Mr. McMichael and Ms. Franzen helped prove my point that the school board is operating under the assumption of “If we build it they will come.” They seem to be happy with this assumption.

This assumption may be true. However, I like to see hard evidence. Show me the statistics that say in X number of communities where major building projects were undertaken by the school student enrollment increased by X percent. Or show me the studies that show that where schools closed in X number of communities X percent of communities ceased to exist. Or show me the statistics that say in X number of schools that spent millions of tax dollars on infrastructure, academic performance of students increased by X percent. Show me these statistics and I’ll be on the “If we build it they will come” band wagon, I’ll even hitch up the horses.

I’m not against change, I’m not against proactive action, I’m not even against brainstorming wild and crazy outside the box ideas. But the administration and the board have a history of picking one idea that is usually the easiest and the one that everyone else is doing and not seriously considering any other ideas. Before the committee was even formed the rumor going around was that the school wanted to build a gym/wellness center/pool and move the 7^th and 8^th grade up to Nashua. Is it wrong to ask that my elected officials show me what they are basing their decisions on and to want them to base those decisions on facts not anecdotal evidence, speculation, hope and hunches?

But to reiterate my main point and hopefully it will come across this time and that is; as far as I can tell the reason these building projects are being proposed is because they believe “If we build it they will come.” And neither Ms. Franzen nor Mr. McMichael stated otherwise. And in my humble opinion that’s not really a good reason to spend hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of tax payer dollars regardless of where they come from.

Sincerely,

Shawn Geer “Cave Person”