Letter: Reaction to nearby charter decision

Although I don’t have any school-age kids – my two sons are in college now –  I do care very much about the quality of the public schools in Morgan Hill. I have had the pleasure of visiting several of our local Morgan Hill schools and have always come away impressed by both teachers and students. On top of that, the many alumni who chose to live in Morgan Hill after completing their schooling are justly proud of their alma mater. I get that, because I attended public schools in a small town in Connecticut, and the twelve years of education I received there proved to be a solid foundation for my entire life. I want our kids in Morgan Hill to have that, too. They are our future, and the kind of education they get today will determine their future. The job we do during their twelve years in our school system will probably determine more than anything else what type of Morgan Hill we will have in 2035. After all, many of these kids will become our future teachers, cops, builders, nurses, doctors, lawyers, business owners, and parents.
I have been fascinated by the many articles and letters appearing in the Times regarding charter schools over the past few months, and I have made a point of going out to attend some local school board meetings as well as the most recent County School Board meeting where Navigator’s petition to open Morgan Hill Prep School was turned down narrowly by a 4-3 vote. I have been watching very closely what has been happening in these meetings, connecting what I have been reading here, and gradually starting to make sense of it all. I have tried my best to keep my focus on how what everyone is saying on either side of the charter school controversy might impact the education of the kids we so deeply want to help.
It is my intention to help raise the level of our community dialogue so that we do not create a situation of winners and losers at this point. Morgan Hill voters will have enough time later this year to choose four of the seven MHUSD board members, but for now, let’s find a good solution on charters for the sake of our kids. Please bear with me as I try to explain my point of view.
David Gerard, Morgan Hill