After 39 years of teaching in Cook County, I am going to retire this year. Looking through old yearbooks, I count hundreds of teen-agers, many now parents, who have been in my care.
Over four decades, I have seen this district go through painful budget cuts before. Never before, however, have those cuts threatened to be lethal. My own children are now in their 30s, but if they were teen-agers, I would be truly, desperately worried. Why wouldn’t Cook County, I wonder, support a school levy the way 87 percent of Minnesota’s districts do?
As I approach retirement, I will honor the trust and responsibility given to me. Every spring and fall I will be proud to pay the moderate amount levied to preserve our schools and our community.
Ivy Church
English teacher,
Cook County Schools
Grand Marais
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