Frustrated with lack of leadership

August 19, 2015

Riverside, Iowa

To the Editor:

My name is Abby Sojka, and I will be running for the District 6 seat, on the Highland Community School District Board of Directors. My husband, Grant, and our two daughters, Sophie and Libby, live one mile south of town on a family farm. I am a stay-at-home mom who has volunteered in our school, and I am extremely frustrated with the lack of leadership at Highland.

Our school district does not need a new building ? our district needs new leadership. As a private citizen and mother of two elementary age children, one of them having special needs, I have been very active in trying to improve the educational experience for our district?s children. Highland?s special education program is dying on the vine, while the Mid-Prairie School District is expanding theirs. Our district is losing $6,366 of revenue per student for each student leaving our district. My focus will be on improving the quality of our community-based educational system, so that parents will not feel the need to take their children elsewhere. While our district?s leadership focuses on controlling their costs by spending $10 million of the taxpayers? money, our district?s revenue is walking out the door. Ninety-nine students open enrolled out of our district last school year; that?s about $630,234 in lost revenue from children who live in our district. The root of the problem needs to be fixed before we as parents and citizens can even begin to consider building a new school, it will be impossible to afford a new school when the ratio of the students going out is greater than the number of students coming in, the bottom line being that Highland needs to better the academics and helpl the school grow before building a new building.

Before going to the polls, ask yourself this:

? Why build a new school when the one we have is in perfectly good shape and it was built to be expanded on?

? Why build a new school when the leaders of our district have no plans for the one one?

? Why build a new school when our district is showing no growth in enrollment?

? Why build a new school when our leaders need to better our academic program first so people will want to enroll in our school instead of leave our school?

? Why build a new school when the leadership lets thousands of dollars walk out the doors of the schools we have, all because the children on IEPs require more work?

On Sept. 8 you will have the chance to vote for new leadership on the school board, as four seats are up for vote, and you will also have the opportunity to vote on the bond issue. I encourage everyone to think about the economic implications and keep the children?s best interest at heart when casting their vote.

Abby Sojka