We are considering relocating to Grand Marais and hope we may have finally found an opportunity to do so. Thisis something we have always dreamed about doing.
My husband is an electrician. I am an RN. We have two small children ages six and three.
However, I have reservations about relocating my kids to Cook County if your school levy doesn’t pass. It bothers me that I could be uprooting my kids to a school system that will be broke for years, causing layoffs and program shutdowns.
We have the same problems here in the Twin Cities because of peoples’ shortsightedness about school levies. But we also have open enrollment. So if a school stops providing essential services, then the parents just enroll their children in a school nearby that does. When that happens, the school that’s operating on a shoestring loses enrollment and eventually has to close. We just had a rash of school closings, but there are also many fine public schools down here to choose from that have waiting lists to get in. Thisis not the case for Cook County because your population is much smaller.
How will Cook County thrive and be a magnet for new families if folks like us won’t want to move there because the school is in trouble and people feel that $137 (or so) a year is too much?
You can’t run a community with only retired people living in cabins on the lakes. It will crumble. You need nurses and electricians too. We’d love to come there and feel we could be a vital part of your community, but we come with kids. We understand that there is more to running a school than money will ever fix and that the problems you are facing are more complicated than we know. I just wanted to let you know how it looks to an outsider who is considering relocating.
We ask the great people of Cook County to pass this levy so that we and others like us will feel comfortable for our kids in making the transition to Grand Marais.
Brook and Amy VanderLeest
Brooklyn Park, MN
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