School needs have not gone away

“There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” — Bishop Desmond Tutu.

Medford school officials can’t seem to catch a break. In recent years voters have soundly defeated repeated referendum attempts to update and expand the district’s 53-year-old high school. Most recently, school officials were holding out hope for a federal grant to construct a storm shelter “dome” structure which would conveniently double as a much-needed practice gym space. Those hopes were dashed last week when the district received word that its project was passed over for grant funding with the federal funds going to other priorities such as dealing with rising sea waters in low lying shoreline communities.

In storybooks, some knight in shining armor will swoop in at the last moment and save the day. In the past, Medford was blessed with people like Pep and Fran Simek and others who would give the community a boost to get it moving in the right direction. Those days are long-gone. The reality is that if the Medford community wants to do something it will need to rely, not on the generosity of benefactors, but on the willingness of residents to invest in the future.

At the July school board meeting, members talked about communication with taxpayers and residents about not only sharing the school district’s needs, but about what residents and people looking to come here want their school to be.

The clear takeaway from that discussion was that any future attempts at improvements must be community driven. Board members and administration are tired of being the punching bags for those who simply want something to vote against.

This is understandable. If parents and community members want change and improvements in the school they need to stand up and be leaders in making those improvements happen.

In addition to community leadership, the other takeaway is the need for more focused projects. People balk at big numbers and generation-long debt service plans.

While doing piecemeal projects may be less efficient, they are also easier for taxpayers to understand and swallow without choking. It will take longer, but over time, needs can be met and work done in a method that is palatable to taxpayers and voters.

As Bishop Tutu’s proverbial elephant is better eaten in small bites over a long amount of time rather than in giant gulps, so too improvements to schools and facilities must be done in digestible chunks. It is foolish to suggest that they can all be done entirely within school year operating budgets and voters will be asked to support projects as they come up. This a reality of the way school finances work in Wisconsin.

The facility needs of the Medford school district are not going away. The community needs to be ready to step up to identify and address those needs.