Letter to the Editor from Former Macon R-1 School Board Member, Macon School Teacher, and Macon Residents, Lois and Gene Stueve

Dear Editor,

We are writing this letter to ask you to VOTE NO (August 7) on the proposed school redistricting

plan (Proposition 1). In our 135 collective years we have never voted NO on a school issue, but

on THIS issue we are BOTH voting NO, and our reasons for voting NO follow:

 We believe moving students is not good, unless there are positive reasons

like the family WANTS to move for a new job. I have solid research that

indicates that moving kids can have a negative impact on their lives now

and throughout their adult years. All kids do NOT adapt well to moving,

especially if it is not in their or their family’s best interests.

 We believe the communities of Shelbina and Clarence will be hurt

economically by this redistricting plan with teachers losing jobs and

community businesses having to probably cut employees also, due to fewer

customers in their communities. The real estate market will be impacted,

along with churches, grocery stores, restaurants. All elements of a

community will feel a negative effect.

 We believe both schools have proved excellent in educating students.

Progress is the best way to assess the efficacy of schools, and both have

done great jobs in this area. Check the DESE website for the achievement

scores of all concerned schools; it will prove both schools are in good shape

academically.

 We believe small class size is crucial to student progress and both schools

have excellent students to teacher ratios. Adding students to Macon

schools makes no sense to us. Macon passed a school issue in 2017 to

finance a building due to overcrowding, and that building was not even

extra; it replaces the former two trailers.) Passing school bond issues or

levies has been a genuine struggle in Macon over the past 20 years, so

passing another school bond issue or levy for increasing school size is not

likely. Macon’s own taxes may well be raised to accommodate new

facilities to handle the many extra students.

 We believe crossing county lines to annex or remove a school does not make

sense. Longer bus time, inaccessibility of Clarence students to extracurricular

activities and not being in the close living vicinity of their friends will add to the

adjustment problems those students impacted by this change may experience.

The only benefit we see is for those who do not want to pay the taxes.

 We believe there have been no reasons of depth or value put forth that

warrant the redistricting. There are excellent opportunities at each school,

and we do not believe that the redistricting will benefit any students or

teachers. We feel that not paying the taxes Shelby County voted in is the

reason the Vote Yes crew is trying to redistrict.

We also believe that making sure you are not causing harm to others is the

moral way to operate. Making sure all Northeast Missouri counties are doing

well, is to make sure we ALL are doing well. Macon, Clarence and Shelbina are all

important to this area, and we want all communities to prosper.

PUT KIDS FIRST

PLEASE VOTE NO ON SCHOOL REDISTRICTING

Sincerely,

Gene Stueve former Macon R-1 School Board member

Lois Stueve Retired Macon R-1 teacher