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Life with Levi
Feeling insignificant and unimportant is not an option
By Amanda Olson
Editor

As the new Editor of CNO, I’ve been reading all of the letters and columns that come in regarding the Greenville Schools Levy. And I am overjoyed to see the supportive members of the community that are willing to give local students the new facility that they need and deserve.

I’ve also read the opinions of those who are opposed to giving Greenville students a new school that they can be proud of.

I know what you’re probably thinking by now: isn’t this column supposed to be about my son Levi?

Yes, it is.

And, yes, this column in particular is just as much about Levi as all the others have been.

Because frankly, after all the fighting and bickering and mud-slinging that I’ve seen from the residents of Greenville, there is no way in the world that I will ever send my son to a school that is not backed by the community.

We live in Ansonia. I’ve lived in Ansonia my whole life, except for a couple of years that I lived in Greenville. So go right ahead and tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. But you might also want to know what all of this looks like from an outsider’s point-of-view.

I grew up in a town that supports its students. When I went to Ansonia High School, the building was falling apart. Most of the basement was condemned, along with the bell tower. The building itself was filled with asbestos, and the part of the basement that wasn’t condemned would flood when it rained.

Half of the windows in the building had been bricked over to save on heating costs in winter, the floors in the oldest part of the building popped and creaked whenever anyone walked across them, and my senior year, bricks began falling off the top of the building near the roof. For at least a week, part of the front lawn was roped off with caution tape.

Sound familiar? It should. From what I’ve seen and heard, these problems, along with many others, plague the facilities that Greenville Schools still use. And while some of the problems that Ansonia had may not necessarily overlap, my point is this: Ansonia provided us with a new facility that wasn’t hazardous to our health. The residents of Ansonia didn’t pitch a fit and fight against the school board. They passed the levy and built us a new school.

I never got to attend the new school. My class was the last to spend the entire year in the old high school building. But I am still glad that the town gave us a new school. They saw the need, and they met the need.

Last time I checked, Ansonia is a lot smaller than Greenville. And maybe that’s why the levy got passed. Not nearly as many nay-sayers. There are a lot of differences that play into passing a levy and getting a new school building.

But really, there shouldn’t be.

It should be about the students. The kids that will grow up to call Greenville their hometown.

I’m proud to say that I grew up in Ansonia. I’m proud to say that I’m a graduate of Ansonia High School. And I can’t wait to tell people that my son goes to Ansonia.

As of this year, I’ve been out of school for 11 years. And I’m just as proud now as I was then. I’m also proud to say that my little sister graduated from Ansonia this year.

My husband graduated from Greenville in 2008. He agrees with me that Levi will never go to Greenville Schools.

Some of the stories that he told me about the school as a whole are scary. Not necessarily about the buildings, but about the atmosphere. Many other Greenville grads that I’ve spoken to told me equally scary stories. And they also say their kids won’t go to Greenville.

When Aaron went to Greenville, he felt that the community was not behind the school. He describes Greenville as a retirement community where no one cares about the students. To me, that’s sad.

I’ve read columns by Managing Editor Bob Robinson where he recalls Greenville students asking him why Greenville residents won’t support them. Like Bob, my heart breaks when I think about those kids feeling like they aren’t important enough to deserve a new school.

To me that says that Greenville is putting it’s own wants and needs ahead of it’s students. Kids don’t care about politics, and taxes, and money. They want love and attention. From what I’ve seen, Greenville isn’t giving them much of either.

Every school district in this county has given their students a new facility. Except Greenville.

Why is that?

Have all of you forgotten that someone paid for you to go to school? Sure, they may not have paid as much, but they still footed the bill. It probably wasn’t easy for all of those people, but they still did it.

In my mind, it’s time for people to stop complaining and step up to the plate. You are now in the shoes of those who paid for your education. How would you have felt if your community didn’t back you up? How would you have felt if there were adults walking around saying, “I’ll never vote for that levy. They don’t need a new school.”

If I were a kid, I’d feel pretty bad hearing that day after day, year after year. I would feel insignificant and unimportant. And no child should ever feel that way.

Levi will never go to Greenville as long as there are those walking around telling the children of the community that they aren’t worth it. Because in essence, that is what Greenville is doing: telling kids that they aren’t important. That all of these grown-up issues that kids have no idea about are more important.

If I lived in Greenville, I would support the levy because I think children are this nation’s greatest resource. Our children today have enough to deal with without having to go through life feeling like they aren’t deserving of the best.

I know many will blow me off and tell me that I have no idea what I’m talking about. And maybe I don’t have all the facts.

But I do know this: No one will ever tell my son that he isn’t good enough, that he doesn’t matter.  So I guess as of right now, that means he won’t be going to Greenville.

And that, Greenville, is your loss. I just hope you realize how great of a loss that is before you lose your town’s entire future.


 
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