Editor,

The goal of the Oak Harbor School District is to ensure that each student is academically prepared upon graduation with a clearly defined set of skills that will lead to a realistic training path to success.

This path can be a traditional four-year university, community college, technical college, the military, an apprenticeship or a job with future career training potential.

The key point is that success means different things to different students. For public schools to produce focused and competent young adults requires a wide variety of learning opportunities.

This approach is good for students and essential for our country.

It would be disastrous for our country to be reliant on others for the practical skills essential for everyday life in the 21st century: automotive technicians, welders, robotic designers, graphic artists, architects and small business entrepreneurs, to name a few. These are all potentially well-paying, long-term careers.

To become entry-level proficient in these fields or ready for a traditional, four-year university requires training opportunities. Oak Harbor’s Career Technology Education program and Advanced Placement classes are great examples of such opportunities, opportunities which are now in jeopardy.

Funding cuts over the past five years have brought our schools below the basic amount required to operate continuously without a serious backslide.

The proposed school levy will not restore all funding support lost in the past five years, but just enough to continue our progress forward.

Our community leaders recognize the need for a certain minimum level of funding for any quality organization to survive.

That is why Sen. Barbara Bailey, Representatives Dave Hayes and Norma Smith, Commissioner Jill Johnson and Mayor Scott Dudley have endorsed the school levy. We are asking for your support as well. Please vote “Yes” for the school levy.

Peter Hunt
Oak Harbor School Board