To the citizens of Pittsylvania County

To the editor:

Twenty-five years ago, my graduating class returned to Tunstall High School for a football game, high school tour and reunion dinner. Classmates who had moved away marveled at how little change there had been in the school and surrounding campus. One classmate who now resides in Loudon County in Northern Virginia, shared concerns and sadness over the lack of updates and modernization.

Being the proud Pittsylvanian that I am, I quickly told her the marvelous stories of how our students excel in academics, sports and extracurricular activities. I shared updates on faculty and administrators and how many students from surrounding localities line up to attend our schools due to the excellence of our achievements. Yet, I walked away shaken about her questions on our commitments to the funding to adequately support the excellence in our school system.

On Oct. 15, 25 years later, my class will again tour the halls of our high schools, as will classes at Chatham, Gretna and Dan River. We will share stories of excellent achievements of students and faculty, but the halls that they recalled from their graduation 50 years ago will remain — much as they remembered. We have built middle schools and provided modest investments in elementary schools, but many of our campuses remain the same. We will brag on our accomplishments, but let us all also critique the shortcomings of our efforts to a critical aspect of our community development.

We have been extraordinarily blessed with faculty and staff who have contributed to the fiber of our students and by parents who volunteer and commit to the excellence of their education. We have been blessed by facility managers who have stretched dollars to maintain aging systems and updated technology needs to meet current demands. But we have asked them to respond without recognizing the total transformations that have taken place within the educational environment. Education has changed and so have the requirements for buildings, equipment, technology, transportation and logistics. The demands on our administration, staff and faculty have increased exponentially, and so have the needs for changes to the student environment.

As parents and citizens, we expect our schools to be safe in an environment that is constantly changing and requiring more security than we would have imagined in the past. We expect our classrooms to be equipped with technology that will enable our students to be able to compete with those in more affluent neighborhoods and to be an equal to those with whom they will sit beside in college. We anticipate that they will be in environments that are energy efficient – cool during hot days and warm in the winter without anticipating mold or mildew. And most of all, we anticipate that the learning environment will provide them innovation and creativity to wet their appetite to know that we believe that they can reach new heights and build a future that will be the best for all.

As a regional economic developer, I proudly present our students and faculty to companies from around the world without questioning that they will dazzle them with their dedication, discipline and imagination. I watch middle schoolers in the GO TEC program show them the tools used by our manufacturers and career and technical students show CEOs how they can optimize their processes to have a better profit margin. And I watch these visitors, inclusive of governors and company owners return to their regions, trying to replicate what we have in our community.

This November, we have an opportunity to show these students and faculty members that we stand behind them. The request is not a substantial tax burden for anyone in our region. We are asking for no more than a penny on the dollar (1%) retail sales tax to be dedicated to the construction or renovation of schools in Pittsylvania County. Our neighboring counties have already implemented this needed change (Halifax, Danville, Martinsville, Henry and Patrick counties). Please vote “Yes” on Nov. 8 to help:

• Remove 26 outdated mobile units from our school campuses;

• Enhance safety and security for our schools;

• Construct innovative learning environments; and

• Replace outdated building equipment with efficient systems.

This is not a permanent tax but would expire in Feb. 15, 2042. Please join me in voting not only for the future of our students – but the future of our region.

Sincerely,

Linda Hutson Green

Dry Fork