In the next two weeks, the voters in the USD 489 school district will decide on an issue that will impact our community for the next 50 years. Regardless of how you choose to vote on the school bond, I hope you will consider what I call the four Cs.
Competition
We live in a competitive world. Our community competes with many others when it comes to attracting new businesses, healthcare professionals, professors, teachers, retirees, and remote workers. Fortunately, in many areas, we compete very well. We have a great healthcare system, an amazing four-year university, great broadband technology, and our city and county elected officials have consistently done a very good job maintaining our infrastructure. Unfortunately, we don’t compete well in the quality of our educational facilities. We have failed to make the investments needed and it has put us at a competitive disadvantage. I assure you that when companies and people look at Hays, they look at the quality of education as WELL as the quality of our facilities. Facilities matter. We don’t compete well. We need to fix this.
Confidence
Many comments have been made regarding trust. Trust comes hard these days and some feel we cannot trust the USD 489 school board, the vision committee, the architect, the date of the vote, you name it. Having witnessed the process, what I have seen is a group of dedicated community members who have done their homework, looked at various options, and developed a plan that is doable and will create long-term value for our community. While all of us will never agree with every part of this bond from what I have seen, we can have a great deal of confidence in the people who have worked through this process. They are not a bunch of Kool-Aid drinkers. They are smart, engaged people that want only the best for our community.
Cost
Much focus has been placed on the cost of the bond. Understandably so. It is a large investment and we will all have to contribute in one way or another. A more important question however is what is the cost of NOT passing this bond. Make no mistake, there is a cost to this community if this bond fails. We will miss opportunities. There will be people and businesses that will choose not to locate here. It will not help our workforce shortage and it will be more difficult to grow. I cannot put a specific dollar value on what that cost will be but I believe, in the long term, it will be well above the cost of this bond.
Children
The most important C is children. We have neglected to provide modern learning environments for our kids for long enough. I am a lifelong resident of this community. My parents went through the USD 489 School System, I attended Lincoln School, Felten Middle School, and Hays High School on 12th street. They were old when I was there and that was a long time ago! The “it was good enough for me so it should be good enough for the children today” attitude doesn’t cut it anymore. We live in a different world and it is time that we make the investments needed to ensure our children, grandchildren, and future generations have an environment that equips them best for the future. We can’t kick this can down the road any longer.
Doug Williams, Grow Hays executive director