Our community is struggling with a big decision involving our children and our money. Most families struggle over such decisions and must discuss and argue and work it out.
At the end of the day they still love each other. This process in Ipswich doesn’t have to be as divisive as it seems to be.
It is democracy in action and in Ipswich we are privileged to be able to participate at this level.
At the end of the day we still love and care for our friends and neighbors. We just need to work through it and come to consensus as a community what we think is best.
I have previously addressed town meeting about the pricelessness of the proximity of the Ipswich Public Library to the school children of Ipswich. I would like to restate that this is in the words of the credit card ad “priceless.”
In the century and a half since the library was built we have only built one school outside of walking distance from it. Presently three-fourths of our student body can walk to the library.
I think we need to take a very deep breath and think about our kids before we take 50 percent of our students out of safe walking distance from the library.
That would be the entire elementary population.
My five children went to the local elementary school. I considered it to be their second family.
None of my children had identified special needs, but as a young family we most definitely had special needs.
We faced times of major health crises and our kids were caringly supported. I credit this experience with much of their success in life.
Elementary schools need to provide much more than learning. Kids need a haven, a caring second home, a place where everyone knows each other.
This nurturing environment sets the stage for lifelong learning.
Most young families face multiple difficult and challenging times — paying off student loans, finding jobs, renting, moving, trying to buy homes, balancing work and family life, possibly taking care of elderly parents and the introduction of new siblings to the family.
Major changes regularly happen in young children’s lives. Small schools can keep track of these changes and stressors and allow the child’s school life to be the most productive it can be.
When my family of origin was struggling, living downtown with a single mom overwhelmed with her situation and raising six young children and caring for her very ill mother downstairs, we could all walk to school.
However, the youngest one of us was the sunshine of my mother’s life and my mother did not send her to school.
So, the kindergarten teacher at the local school came to our house, knocked on the door, introduced herself and said “Mrs. Perkins your daughter must go to school. It’s not a choice.”
And, so my youngest sister went off happily to school and is now a first-grade teacher herself for the past 35 years.
When my mother and uncles and aunts went to school in the 20s and 30s and 40s they walked to school their whole lives and made lifelong friends.
They studied at the library after school and met with friends downtown, maybe even at my grandfather’s drugstore for an ice cream soda. My family had this benefit for nine decades.
In the words of one of my elderly aunts “it was an absolutely ideal life.”
In my 22 years at the library I witnessed many young families moving to the downtown of Ipswich for exactly this type of ideal life.
I think we need to pause and take a very hard look before jumping into something of such historic precedence.
If anything, we should be aiming to bring the 25 percent of Ipswich school children who cannot walk to the library closer to town so that they may enjoy this privilege as well.
My understanding is that this is supposed to be all about the children. That is all I am addressing here, what is best for the children.
I have absolutely no “skin in the game.” I certainly wish I did but my grandchildren are all over the country and the world.
I have been involved with nurturing children my whole life and I am speaking only from my heart, as I ask you to please try to consider this purely for the children.
Maureen Fay
Fellows Rd.