I went to pick my daughter up today at Paris South Elementary School and I noticed how run down and over crowded it is. While I was there I started to talk to a employee of the school and I mentioned something about the condition of the school and the large number of students in the class rooms. This person said the ratty carpet was original from when the school was built. and some of the missing, broken & stained ceiling tile have been that way for years. I thought to myself what a shame that our children have to go to school with it looking like this. With the amount of taxes we pay you would think that our schools would be better taken care of. The sad thing is this problem is not exclusive to Paris South. In this country there should be no school that is as run down as North, Paris South and Walker whose principle Mrs. White does an excellent job with what little she has to work with. White elementary is another issue, it appears that the school district has done nothing at this school in years except try to close it. If it was not for the principle Mrs. Holt and the PTO the school would have probely caved in. I must say the two schools that we have been involved in, there PTO's have been the life saver of the schools. The condition of these schools should be and is unacceptable! As parents and taxpayers we should not stand for this and we need to hold the School board and the school officials responsible. I know we have a new superintendent and he should be given a chance to make a plan of action on how to fix the situations and communicate it to the public. With all the political and community activist we have in this town they should be jumping on the band wagon so to speak and get the public aware of the irresponsible and inexcusable behavior of the school administration.

Secondly, There needs to be new schools being built. On top of that there needs to be a growth plan in place so that there is a clear plan to have schools replaced and new schools built so our children have the best environment to learn in that we can give them. There does not seem to be a growth plan in effect. If there is it needs to be communicated to the public so they can get behind the plan and support it. After all it is the tax payers that pay for the schools and if they know what is going on they will be more supportive when it comes to funding them.

In my opinion we as a community need to come together and make and build a better educational system for our children.