How connected do you feel with your local school board?

Do you know their names? When their meetings are held? What they’ll be voting on next?

If there were a vote to close the school in your town, are you certain you would know ahead of time?

This month, the Board of the Addison Central School District will be considering whether to bring voters back into the fold.

A petition sits before them, signed by over 500 district residents, asking them to give voters a choice: What should school closure require?

1) A vote of the town, whose school would then shut its doors? Or 

2) A vote of the district, as a whole?

The petition asks the board to let voters decide between these two paths. It recognizes that while we, as citizens, may not always find time to keep up with our board, the question of school closure is, nevertheless, still near and dear to our hearts. It asks that we, the voters, be entrusted to choose how we will honor the weightiest decisions we may be called upon to make.

The board has an opportunity to take this question to the voters, acknowledging that some decisions are too important to be made at a distance. Nowhere could that be more true than on the question of how we decide which schools may be shuttered and which will remain. If the petition is denied, it will be a sign that the board would prefer to shape school closure decisions on its own.

If that happens, then voters will have one more opportunity to weigh in. This March, as voters weigh their choices among school board candidates, they can seek out and support candidates who believe in the value of empowering citizens, to help shape the future of our district — especially when it matters most.

Chris Kramer

Cornwall