What makes schools great?

Great schools need many things. They need teachers passionate about what they teach, highly qualified to teach their subjects and who know how to open up new worlds for their students. They encourage dialogue and exploration, offer positive reinforcement and teach kids how to think and digest facts.

Great schools know what they want to accomplish and how to get there. They prepare kids from early childhood to graduation to accept challenges and reach for high expectations. They offer extensive, high-level academic courses that give kids a leg up when they pursue their higher-education goals. They graduate students prepared to go on to colleges, universities and trade schools. All of these qualities are manifested in the Sisters district as evident in the recent highest ratings given by the state of two fives and a four.

Great schools have enough money to provide great teachers, challenging academics and quality facilities.

Unfortunately, that is not the case in Sisters, or in most of Oregon. The income received by the Sisters School District has been reduced from $13.2 million to $10 million over the past five years due to a loss of students and inadequate state funding. As a community we have risen to meet this challenge through the Sisters Schools Foundation, voting in the Local Option and wonderful donations from citizens. However, all of Oregon needs to rise to the challenge of making our schools sustainable.

Great schools have communities behind them, communities that trust those in charge to do the very best for the kids in their care. That is why the administration enlisted the help of people with knowledge to form a community facilities committee to sort out what absolutely needed to be addressed by the bond being voted on, and what could wait.

In actuality, the district needs $27 million in repairs. To be fiscally prudent the committee recommended the $14,5 million that is being sought. This is the time to go after that money, when interest rates are at an all-time low. To wait will be more expensive for all of Sisters' taxpayers.

There are many things the money is earmarked for, however, none as important as upgrading the security measures that will be put in place. There have been 387 school shootings since 1992, as close as Prineville in 2007 and Bend in 2013. Thurston High, Columbine, Sandy Hook Elementary weren't prepared. Are the schools in Sisters less immune? Will we be prepared?

The value of electronic textbooks shouldn't be a question, especially when used to teach all levels of abilities within our system.

In Oregon, state money for education is limited to the day-to-day process of teaching our kids. It is up to local communities to provide the facilities in which that teaching takes place. If we hope to attract the best teachers, provide academics that catapult our kids further and encourage enriching extracurricular activities, we need to be sure our facilities are the best they possibly can be. Otherwise, those best-of-the-best teachers will go elsewhere, those academic classes will be fewer and options for the future will diminish.

Money is important to create the kind of education system our kids deserve, along with a strong sense of community; a community that doesn't penalize the kids by side issues that obscure the facts of what is needed. Absolutely essential is empathy and concern about surroundings, and a sense of stewardship. We need to invest in what others before us have provided in order to maintain the quality of education we have grown to expect.

The future will be determined by how we educate our kids. The best communities and schools are truly concerned with educating the whole child. At this time of decision, with a bond issue in front of us, we need to ask, "how do our schools measure up and how can I help them claim the title of being 'A Great School'?"