Iolan: Don’t settle for ‘good enough’ schools

Another good-sized crowd attended Monday night’s meeting to discuss new schools for local students. With terrible acoustics, a weather-beaten gymnasium and a rattling ventilation system, perhaps Lincoln Elementary was the perfect venue to illustrate the condition of the town’s elementary schools.

Despite the impressive presentations by architects and engineers and school administrators as to the advantages of new schools, it was the comments of two citizens that stole the show.

Joe Hess, best known for his leadership with the senior citizens thrift store, gave a talk about the dangers of “good enough.” 

“I was born on a farm, over across the line in Missouri,” he began. “For the first seven years I attended a one-room schoolhouse. As far I knew I was getting a good education.

“I was the only student in my class. In the whole school there was only seven or eight of us.

“In my 7th-grade year, the school closed.

“When I got to 8th grade I found out I didn’t know very much. Fortunately, I had a teacher who gave me a lot of extra help and time, and I put in a lot of extra effort and was able to pass 8th grade —barely.

“I made Cs and Ds in 9th grade and by working hard, I was making As and Bs by my senior year. I went on and finished college. I’ve been in education as a biology and chemistry teacher, high school counselor, school administrator.

“What we’re talking about here tonight, is if our people are satisfied. That this is what they know and consider it good enough.

“That’s what I thought when I was in that one-room schoolhouse. But I found out I was not very well-prepared. And even when I went to the high school, they didn’t offer biology, or chemistry or algebra. I had to do that as makeup when I went to college.

“So we can either let our students make up after they finish here for what we’re not providing, or we can put in what they need so they can be able to compete when they get out into the world.”

The crowd erupted in applause.

IT WOULDN’T be a school meeting without a plethora of statistics. A single, new elementary school for pre-kindergarten up through fifth-grade students could save, at a minimum, $300,000 a year due to increased efficiencies.