By Nancy Cantor
I have been involved with our schools for so long……as a student, as a parent, as a volunteer, as an advocate, as a proud neighbor and many will agree, a noodge. Always a noodge and my teachers encouraged me to be a noodge. And that is what I am going to do now.
Bond and override elections are critically important to all phases of learning. Don’t grumble since 1993 politics has inserted itself into all phases of education especially maintenance and operation of schools, even in Scottsdale. Our last Bond and Override evolved from the unfinished business in the mid 90’s that left several of our schools with facilities that had building safety issues and conditions that did not support the advanced technology all of our students are involved in. And some with out of date infrastructure like plumbing for drinking fountains and chillers for the air conditioning and then there were the actual building structures that due to settling had walls that were ready to buckle and cave in and roofs that were leaking due to the walls and settling.
What we have today are facilities that are safe and better accommodate education technology and address the different learning styles of our kids (my grandkids and great grandkids). They also accomplish several elements of sustainability and energy conservation.
I have stayed involved and serve on the Bond and Capital Override Oversight Committee (BOC). A long with seven other folks it has been our task to understand the use of the 2016 Bond and Override funding. And make sure that the concerns of the community and neighbors of our schools were understood by the district. Director of Building Services, Dennis Roehler spearheaded the effort, along with Transportation Director, David Jacobson and CFO Shannon Crosier.
This year we must renew SUSD’s Capital Override to avoid losing those valuable funds in the future. We encourage everyone who votes to vote “yes” on the Override. Scottsdale residents have always taken pride in our schools and our students. In fact education is one of the factors that has lead us to be a World Class City from primary grades to institutes of higher education. Are we perfect? Not by a long shot, we still have much noodging to do.
I want to thank my fellow members of the Oversight Committee for the time and effort they have all put in for our students and teachers.
Nancy Cantor
In partnership with the Bond and Capital Override Oversight Committee:
Wally Graham
Stuart Rhoden
Maryann McAllen
Nikki Territo
Mike Norton
Jose Velarde
Michael Peabody