Reader supports Pentwater school bond proposal.

Reader supports Pentwater school bond proposal.

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Dear Editor:

I recently started wondering whether I should vote for the Pentwater school district bond issue on the Nov. 2 ballot. Over the past 10 years, I was in the school many times during weekdays, to attend service club meetings and use the fitness room that adult taxpayers can use.    

I found calm but enthusiastic students in the hallways and cafeteria, and actual learning going on in classrooms that I walked by. The school’s “Where Everybody is Somebody” slogan — and its reputation for being “a public school with a private school atmosphere” is for real. U.S. News & World Report has just put Pentwater H.S. in Michigan’s Top 12 percent.

But a friend told me he’s begun wondering whether it’s time to merge the Pentwater School District with an adjacent one.    

Not understanding public school taxation, I started asking around and reading, and found that every home and parcel of land is in some school district. If Pentwater students were to go to Ludington or Hart, we taxpayers would pay the millage that all taxpayers pay to that district. We’d be able to vote for or against a bond proposal, but the other voters would mostly be residents of one of those fine communities. That’s why I think we’d have more of a voice if the school stays in Pentwater.

Is it better for taxpayers to have school amenities located locally, rather than miles away? The proposed millage has provisions for an upgraded outdoor track and soccer field, a new gym — with a fitness area, and an inside walking loop around the competition court — and a new auditorium that’s a perfect venue for school and community music or theater events. I think we’re better off having these features here, not in another community’s school 10-20 miles away.      

Passing the proposal also is better for everyone’s property values. A local school with a competitive, modern infrastructure will make the Pentwater area even more of a community of choice. It will come at a time when more telecommuters are re-thinking where they choose to live and raise their families.  

So I hope Pentwater School District voters will take time to learn about this important topic. I found good information on two websites — PTWBond2021.com and VoteYesNov2.com – and also on a Facebook group page that’s named PTWBond2021.

Ron Beeber

Pentwater