Soon Monmouth voters will have the opportunity to vote to stay in or leave Regional School Unit 2. I would hope that Monmouth residents’ primary concern would be for the welfare of the children being educated.
I have seen dramatic improvement in areas that were seriously deficient prior to consolidation, including information technology, food service, transportation and, most importantly, the coordinated curriculum.
RSU 2 is currently at the forefront of Standards Based Education. Recently, teachers from other schools visited Monmouth schools to see the improvements in action.
Administrators are working daily with teachers and students because RSU 2 has the structure that employs professionals managing the transportation, food service, information technology and buildings and grounds programs.
Leaving the RSU will force the principals back to having to manage non-student/teacher issues daily, taking them away from classroom issues and cost taxpayers more money.
As Monmouth residents prepare to vote on the direction of their children’s education, how will leaving RSU 2 make schools in Monmouth better? Withdrawal at this time, just as we begin to see successes of this partnership, is wrong for our educational system.
After going through the turmoil and adjustments that happen with major change, leaving RSU 2 would result in several years of readjustments as we work to hire a new superintendent, food service director, special education director and others with no assurance they’ll be comparable in expertise to the people now employed.
We must keep the positive collaboration going.
I shall vote “no” to ensure the children’s educational success.
Rich Howard, Monmouth
Member, Citizens for Stronger Monmouth Schools
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