I sit hear (sic) reading the article on the school bond’s second failure and the disappointment felt by Vickki Harring and others. I just shake my head. As a voter who cares about the schools, I prayed they would get sensible and come up with a plan that made physical (sic) and economical sense.

Had they waited until November to put this back on the ballot they could have presented alternatives. They could have involved the community in selecting alternate plans, taken steps to ensure confidence by the community and involvement that would have helped this pass. Will you ever learn Oak Harbor School District and board members? You work for us, the little guys with the voting cards, we’re the ones that elected and hired you.

If you plan to put this back on the bond in 2004, I suggest you get hopping on alternate plans and make sure those plans involve the community and our interests. You can’t have it “your” way, it has to be “our” way or nobody gets anything and the students suffer for it. This flop was predictable right from the beginning and my heart goes out to those dedicated to try to pull it off (excluding the school district/board).

The fact that only half the voters turned out at the polls makes a pretty bold statement, particularly since I brought four new voters to the polls this last time. It would appear it was much easier to rally new “no” voters than “yes” voters. I just pray you haven’t created so much distrust and angered the voters so much with this wasted “special bond” that even with a sensible, economical, alternate plan, we that might have voted yes will just vote no.

Maybe now you can focus on placing some much needed requests for funding of current books and materials for the high school for the November election. In a previous article a community member stated “schools don’t teach kids, teachers teach kids.” Touche’ to you sir, however they can’t teach if they don’t have the materials needed.

Wendy Turner

Oak Harbor