Vote “no” to keep local education and Andover Elementary

To the Editor:

How would you like $10,000 towards your child’s college or technical school education from a local endowment? How do you get it?

Want your elementary child to have a healthy breakfast and local foodslunch provided at no cost through local contributions? Sounds good, not packing lunches or worrying about if they ate enough for breakfast.

Do you enjoy winter activities and want your k-5 child to have the benefits of Cross-Country skiing outside the school house door for health & fitness?

Has your child been targeted as a challenged learner OR brighter than other classmates and bored in school? Would you like a learning environment where your child can get the one-on-one attention to academically succeed and thrive?

Each of these things are available to you if you live and raise your children in Andover. A strong family heritage has created a community where these things are important to us. This is why I decided to raise my children in Andover.

I am asking Andover and area families to support our rural publicschool by voting "no" on Thursday, June 16. We all hear so many people and politicians talk about wanting to keep Maine "the way life should be" with rural, family oriented communities. Yet, we make choices that don't support those goals. As SAD44, we should be celebrating the education and unique opportunities we provide - not squashing them.

Our children are the link to the future. The choices we make and priorities we set let our children know what we think is important in life.

Making young ones "commute" to school over 26 miles is not quality of life. Closing a rural community school does not support business, families or healthy communities.

Please vote "no" to keep Andover Elementary open as we work to continue the community value of local education for our children.

Heather O'leary

Proud parent of an Andover Elementary student