Campaign hopes to ‘save our schools,’ including Chauncey Elementary

To the Editor:

The "Save Our Schools" campaign has been launched by concerned parents in the Athens City School District.

Our guiding principles:

1) We care about the children of our community.

2) Our children deserve to receive a high-quality education in their own neighborhoods.

3) We are willing to pay for such an educational system, but in return we want parents to make decisions on any big changes to that system.

We believe the members of the ACSD Board of Education and Supt. Carl Martin also care about the children of our community; it is the way they have of showing it that concerns us.

The board goes against principle number 2 by considering closing one of our elementary schools (Chauncey), and busing the children to The Plains Elementary. Another proposal suggests busing most Athens children out of their neighborhoods by changing all elementary schools to either K-4 or 5-8.

The board goes against principle number 3 by not asking for additional funds to make up for Ohio Gov. John Kasich's elimination of state education support, and allowing only six men to make a decision that impacts every parent and child in ACSD.

If parents are happy with our basic educational system, why would the Board of Education and Supt. Martin consider such radical changes without asking us to pay for what we have right now? Some expenses can be trimmed, but they cannot eliminate an estimated 2016 deficit of $12 million without gutting all of our schools!

We propose placing a school levy initiative on November's ballot to keep our education budget balanced, without burdening our children's futures with a mediocre education.

There will be a public meeting to discuss saving our schools on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. at The Plains Public Library. Please join us for the discussion, and join us on our Facebook page at "Save Our Schools — Athens."

Autumn Bycofski, Chauncey parent, co-chair
John Frost, Chauncey parent, co-chair
Mark McCutchan, Morrison-Gordon parent, co-chair
Liana Woods, The Plains PTO president