To the Editor:

As a founding parent with a middle school student, I would like to clarify a few unpublished facts; there are several founding members who are in agreement that the decision to stop putting Band-Aids on our current inefficient system and reevaluate and reorganize the middle school is a necessary action.

Our excelling Seven Gen elementary school students, who wish to continue on at Seven Gen, need a middle school with consistent stability.

The temporary closure choice was a very difficult one for the Seven Generations School Board, middle school research committee and administrators alike; they all are very empathic toward the parents and students of sixth and seventh grade and graduating fifth graders. There was a committee formed in November [2015], at the request of concerned parents, to carefully and analytically review multiple options for creating a better middle school. There were several public meetings to review, through the process of consensus, the research obtained.

In hindsight, the fact of the matter is that the middle school was opened in a desperate panic to open in time for our schedule of adding fifth grade, despite adequate needs and materials necessary.

For seven years, I have put my trust in the administration and board, through the ups and downs, let them do their jobs to the best of their ability and as a result, my daughter has had seven years of an amazing environmentally integrated curriculum there.

Yes, I am disappointed she wouldn’t be able to finish out her middle school years there; so instead of dwelling on my disappointment, I must look forward to the better opportunities that are being offered elsewhere.

Very few people adjust well to change; instead of blaming others, we must teach our children that the world has a mysterious way of offering us better opportunities. Sometimes we stick it out in a place that is not the best, in hopes that the situation will change for the better. We stay because we are comfortable. Oddly enough, being out of our comfort zone, allows us to grow and prosper.

The founding members put in very long and deliberating hours getting the elementary school up and running seven years ago.

I am proud of the numerous accomplishments made in the elementary school which contribute greatly to the surrounding community. Let’s give the middle school an opportunity to start off on the right foot and continue the exemplary Seven Generations elementary education. In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions upon the next seven generations. (Great Law of the Iroquois Confederacy)

Kris Troxell

Emmaus