We want to publicly applaud the North Mason School Board for placing the current capital levy so quickly on the ballot. In March, the district ran both a regular maintenance and operations levy and an ambitious bond request. The levy passed; the bond did not. That left a serious dilemma. The problems that had been identified as needs for the bond - urgent repairs, a sewer hook-up, overcrowding, aging buildings, electrical overloads, outdated textbooks and technology - did not disappear with the rejection of the bond issue.

Feedback from the community was clear; while many recognized the need for the bond, they felt they simply could not afford it at this time. This proposed capital levy is an affordable short-term solution. It will provide funding for some of the most urgent needs, postponing the absolute necessity for new construction.

The most urgent of these needs will have to be met, either with the emergency funding from this capital levy or directly out of the district's already reduced budget. Please keep these thoughts in mind as you decide how to vote: Making these repairs out of the regular budget, after the state has already made dramatic reductions, will cut even more deeply into educational programs and personnel. Efforts will be made to make these repairs using local companies. These greatly reduced, interim costs are much more affordable. The board has committed that if the repairs can be done under budget, the total amount requested will not be collected from district taxpayers. Let us recognize that each generation provides public schools for the next generation; this is our time, our responsibility. If you received a public education, it is because those who came before provided for it.

Thank you, North Mason School Board, for facing your responsibility to the students of the district by having the courage to submit this capital levy to the voters. We hope the community accepts its share of the responsibility with a strong YES vote, returning ballots by Tuesday, May 19.

Jo and Joe Reasons

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