This letter was sent to the Grants Pass Daily Courier by a member of the Williams community.
January 20, 2007
To the editor~
The Williams School is the heart of our community here in Williams.
On Jan. 16, I attended a meeting at Williams School along with over
100 other residents of Williams who are outraged at the threat of
closing or merging Williams School with Applegate School . In
addition to providing an outstanding learning environment, the
Williams School has for the past 85 years been the center of
community life; educationally, socially and recreationally. For the
children of Williams our school serves as so much more than an
educational facility, identifying and offering love and support to
those in need of extra attention, whether food, clothing,
understanding, kind words or a hug. This is the specialness that a
small school can offer. Our school creates and sustains community
and is enthusiastically supported by large numbers of volunteers in
the classrooms, Special Friends, the SMART reading program, music and
art. Volunteers financed and built the computer lab and new
playground equipment.
Our pre-school is overflowing, with a waiting list, and 29 babies
were born in Williams this past year . We need to protect and
preserve the small schools in our county, all of them, not just
Williams School, keeping our young children close to home, off long
bus rides, attending schools that are small enough for each child to
be known personally, and given the attention and respect they
deserve. As a county we need to be building community, not tearing
it apart. Just as we strive to eat locally, we need to educate
locally, and celebrate and value our small communities and small
schools.
Conny Lindley
