LETTER: This parent and teacher is voting YES
October 31, 2021 | By Jason ReichertTo the Community:
My name is Jason Reichert. I am a 10-year resident of Waterbury, father of two thriving children enrolled in two HUUSD schools, and a proud Harwood teacher. On Tuesday, I will be voting YES to the proposed bond because I believe:
Schools are the heart and soul of our community. Attractive schools will entice prospective homebuyers to settle in our towns, and investing in HUUSD will have positive long-term effects on both our student enrollment and community vibrancy.
Continuing to push much-needed repairs into the future will be more expensive in the long run and spending roughly $36 million to improve Harwood alone isn’t enough. The resulting structure will merely be a new-age version of itself with a design still intended for 1965 era educational standards.
Our children deserve to be educated in state-of-the-art facilities that match modern-day educational philosophies and inspire their teachers and support professionals to engage them in modern-day learning practices.
Moving all 7th and 8th graders to CBMS to make room for the Central Office staff and the Harwood Community Learning Center at the Harwood campus is a financially responsible action with long-term savings benefits.
I understand this proposal is complicated and incredibly difficult to decide. It's painful to see my colleagues at Harwood Middle School feel unappreciated even though they provide an incredible education to their 7th and 8th graders. I’m not thrilled about middle school class sizes increasing at Crossett, or another increase to my property taxes (a truly serious educational funding issue, which needs dire attention at the state level). In the end, I believe the benefits of investing in our schools now outweigh the challenges that we will face if we put this decision off even longer.
I urge everyone to carefully consider the impact their vote will have on the future of our evolving community and I encourage everyone to go to the polls on Tuesday. We owe it to those who have thoughtfully put in countless hours of their time to get us to this point. Even more, we owe it to the children of our community to turn out in larger numbers.
Jason Reichert
Waterbury
Jason Reichert is a Harwood mathematics teacher.