Our Passion for Education

Think about the last time you took an art class. Maybe you were excited about the challenge and maybe you were concerned because you would have rather taken a physical education class. We all have different artistic capabilities and we all paint with a different brush stroke. However, one thing that unites us as parents is that we are passionate about our children. We want our children to have opportunities that will lead them to be successful adults.

The Columbia School District is working on re-envisioning and updating our facilities to ensure that our students receive a top quality education. Our goal is to have our students be educated in a safe, warm, dry and technologically appropriate learning environment. Although the State of Michigan funds the education of our students, the upkeep and upgrading of school facilities is passed along to the individual school communities.

As our world becomes more and more unpredictable we as parents view our children’s safety with utmost importance. Our goal to have safe buildings includes not only physical safety from outsiders, but to ensure that the entirety of our aging facilities is upgraded to provide appropriate safe learning environments for our students.

Currently our heating systems are less than optimum; many of the pieces of equipment integrated in the heating system are forty to fifty years old. This lack of dependable heating equipment includes outdated boilers, condensers and rooftop units. Many of you who have children in school, have heard stories over the past few years about buckets in the hallways. Although we have patched the roofs, the patches will not last too long because the balance of the roof is aging and losing integrity with each passing day.

Those of us who like to use technology in our daily lives will appreciate the fact that our facilities need to have up to date wiring and infrastructure to handle the many pieces of information flowing into and out of our students’ computers each moment of the day. While wires and switches do not sound very interesting, it is amazing how important they are to support upgraded computers and tablets for our children’s learning environment.

On Tuesday, February 5^th the Columbia School District Board of Education will hold a work session to hear from companies who work with school districts through the facilities renovation process. Although the meeting is a work session, Columbia School District parents and community members are invited to attend the meeting. If you are interested in learning more about Columbia School District, please call me at 517.592.6641 or email me at pam.campbell@myeagles.org.

Be sure and check out this week’s E-Letter!