I am a resident of Falcon and a teacher in District 49, and I was verydistraught over John Vander Muelen’s editorial last month. While I realizethe voters in District 49 are intelligent enough to cast their own votes, Iam increasingly distressed over the clouding of issues.The Vander Muelen editorial stated that District 49 offers only a “one-sizefits all” education. My first question would be to ask Mr.Vander Muelen whenwas the last time he visited the schools in District 49? If he is comparingthe number of choices offered in our district to the number of choicesoffered in District 20 or in District 11, shouldn’t we also consider thesize of the district, the district tax rate and the commercial percentagethat goes towards our schools?Even putting those things aside, Falcon is still able to offer an alternative (night) high school program, an alternative setting at the middle school level, an engineering track at both high schools, a charter school and many fine traditional schools teaching in a differentiated, innovative, non-traditional manner!As for the voucher issue, there are many different viewpoints both supporting vouchers as well as arguing against them. I would not be foolish enough to try to persuade anyone to take either side but I would hope that the patrons of Falcon explore ALL the facts.The fact that Mr. Vander Muelen feels the patrons of Falcon need to pressure the teacher’s union and the school board on this issue displays his lack of District 49 knowledge. Yes, Falcon does have a teachers union but less than 50 percent of our teachers are members of that union. Our recently elected school board has met many times with our union reps, and the board has made it quite clear that they want ourentire education population to have a voice – not just our union!In closing I would simply like to remind Mr. Vander Meulen that one of theoptions he asked for is smaller class sizes. I truly believe that is the goal of every teacher, administrator and board member in this district. Smaller class sizes, however, will require more classrooms, which in turn require more funding. This mill levy override is not an issue of increasing salaries but rather the desire of District 49 and its employees to better educate our children.District 49 is one of the TWO fastest growing districts in the state (Brighton – east of Denver – is the other) showing 11.9 percent growth in the last year alone! Looking at the last ten-year period, District 49 has shown the fastest growth (by percentage) of any district in Colorado. Since there is no indication that this trend will change anytime soon, we must accommodate the increase in number of students attending our schools. As for choosing the type of education your children andgrandchildren will receive, there are more choices now than ever before ineducation and District 49 is no exception.Our district started as a small rural school and has been working hard for the past ten years to compete with the larger districts in the Pikes Peak Region – all the while with very limited financial resources. To ask District 49 to provide the same number of choices as other, larger districts is not only unfair, it is unreasonable. Maybe it is time to recognize how far our district has come in a very short period of time and thank the district for trying to keep up with our rapid growth.District 49 provides dedicated, committed, and eager employees who demonstrate a willingness to further their own education as well as to adopt any educational practice that is good for kids! Imagine what we could do with smaller class sizes!Jenny OlsonHorizon Middle School
