Resident questions goals of school officials

While waiting for the Boundary County School District Board meeting to begin on Jan. 10, I began reading the school district handouts provided.

While reading the minutes of the trustees' workshop held on Dec. 7, I began to feel like I was in the Twilight Zone as I read and reread our board's short-term and long-term goals. Their number one short-term and long-term goals happen to be the same, that being "to maintain and add to the cash reserve."

Now, I realize it's been a long time since I went to public school … and I mean a very long time, as possibly the wheel wasn't quite invented yet. But I recall a time when going to school meant getting educated.

It meant learning skills that would help you succeed in life, and what you didn't learn in school, your parents taught you. And heaven forbid that your parents got a call from school that you had misbehaved. All hell would break loose, and you would be lucky if you could sit on your butt the next day during class.

I remember two teachers while going to school that gave me inspiration. One was my fifth-grade teacher, a man that taught us something about everything except art, and he told us he couldn't draw a straight line.

So we went to the fifth-grade classroom next door for art, and he taught the other teacher's science material.

The other teacher was my ninth-grade teacher, who taught us about the Constitution, a required class to pass the ninth grade.

He didn't just teach the content, but made the document come alive as well as the men who created it. When I completed that class I understood what our forefathers had gone through to obtain the freedoms we now enjoy as Americans, and to this day, I never take those freedoms for granted.

So yes, I have a problem when our school officials put obtaining money just to sit in a bank account as their number one priority for our schools.

Is it any wonder then that when the children of our community graduate, they often don't know what they plan to do with their lives? How do I know this?

Because I ask them. I love talking to kids and getting their perspectives on life. I also talk to parents with kids in school. Being a mom to five and now a nana to eight, my kid-raising days are done, but I am still interested in what the young people of today have to say.

I know that times have changed, but I do know one thing. Maintaining and adding to a bank account is not what our kids need.

In my opinion, our board of trustees needs to understand that it is the quality of our education that will make the difference of whether the students of today will succeed in life. It is definitely a challenge in the real world, and they need to be prepared with basic life skills, and enter the adult world with an arsenal of knowledge through relevant curriculum, guidance and counseling.

Our young people are the future leaders of our community and country. You and I, as parents, grandparents and citizens of this fine community can make a difference by asking our trustees to not only be obligated, but to take the responsibility of providing an outstanding educational experience for the children of Boundary County.

Donna Capurso

Bonners Ferry