Letters Jan. 21

Reasons for levy

My name is Weston Claassen. I am a 1990 graduate of Colfax School District. I received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Biola University in 1994. This is where I met my wife Jennifer of twenty years. We married and she moved to our community to join me on our family farm. I am a proud fourth generation graduate of Colfax High School, so when I was asked to serve on the Committee for quality schools in support of the 2015 Colfax School Replacement Levy, I was excited to have this opportunity.

Jennifer and I have five children and have been foster parents for a number of children. Colfax is where we have chosen to send our children and foster children to school.

The Colfax School District gave me many opportunities to learn, grow, and achieve in the years I attended.

I had the chance to prepare for my college education as well opportunities to learn more about myself with all the clubs and extracurricular activities.

Some of the things that are important to me, even now twenty-five years later, are within agriculture education where I developed my shop skills, FFA where I learned how to conduct and organize a meeting and how to stand confident in front of a room to deliver a speech, jazz band, choir, and drama where I learned that even though I was painfully shy I could sing, play an instrument, act, and attempt to dance.

I learned that I was not a basketball player as freshman, but I learned in football how eleven guys working together are nearly unstoppable.

So why support this year's levy? Because without this year's levy the children in the Colfax school district will not have any of the opportunities that I and generations of Colfax children have had.

The state of Washington does not fully fund education.

The state does not even fully fund the classroom the students sit in and curriculum including textbooks.

The replacement levy on this year's ballot is to continue the support that we as communities have given in the past and what we need to give in the future.

The current levy passed two years ago will tax a $1,000 of 2016 assessed value of assets at $3.02.

The estimated proposed amount for 2017 is $3.14 and $3.16 for 2018.

This is an increase we as a committee determined was needed after a long discussion of state funding and current district needs.

Our new school administration did a great job educating our committee of the financial and asset situation of the school district.

The current financial health of the school district is excellent, but the cost of maintaining the assets that the district have are increasing with inflation and with our aging school buildings.

We as a committee believe that the district administration could decrease future costs by maintaining the assets of the district now rather than add to larger remodeling costs in the future.

The committee understands that this is only a maintenance and operation levy and not a remodeling bond.

There are and will be future capital needs for our school campus that a replacement operation and maintenance levy cannot fund.

We as a committee are confident that our current administration can operate and maintain our school district with the replacement levy on this year's ballot.

Please vote yes on proposition #1, Colfax School District #300 Replacement Maintenance and Operation Levy.

Weston Claassen, chairman

Committee for

quality schools

Competitive edge

February 9 is Election Day. Colfax School District voters, I urge you to support the two-year Maintenance and Operation levy taking the district through the year 2018.

The levy will support many functions and activities not fully funded by the state. This list includes textbook adoptions and curriculum updates; extra-curricular activities including athletics, choir, jazz and concert band; field trips; Knowledge Bowl; bus transportation; technology services; stipends for coaches and advisors; and building maintenance including heat, lights, and water.

I have worked as a teacher, advisor, and consultant in the district since 1974. 1 have always taken pride in the Colfax School District and what it offers to students, staff, and community members. My husband and I raised four children with all going through the Colfax Education system. They were extremely competitive as they attended 4 year and graduate college programs. Colfax provides our young people with foundational experiences to move forward as responsible citizens.

Colfax has always been competitive in academics, athletics, activities, and the physical appearance of our buildings and grounds. However, it takes the continued support of our voters to maintain that competitive edge.

Please vote YES for Colfax Schools and help continue our successful heritage.

Brenda Kneeshaw

Colfax

Out of whack

Our fears of events are often out of whack with the chances we’ll actually be harmed in such an event. It’s just the way we’re built. For example, most of us know our chances of being killed in a plane crash are much smaller than in a car crash, yet many more people are afraid of flying than of driving. But recognizing when our fear/risk equation is unbalanced can often help us avoid costly mistakes and choose to behave more rationally.

The fear that admitting Syrian refugees to the U.S. lest they spread Jihad seems to me to be a similar case. These people are fleeing war and chaos created by religious fanaticism and political corruption ruining their native land and want no part of it. Most are not “huddled masses”, but professionals, people formerly in the trades or small business, who have the skill and ambition to contribute to our society and economy. Others are mostly mothers and children, widows, elderly folks. The Statue of Liberty reminds us to treat them with compassion. And they will be vetted more thoroughly than foreign nationals who routinely enter the U.S. without any visa or scrutiny whatsoever.

We must be careful not to let our disproportionate fear lead us to repeat terrible mistakes we’ve made in the past, when our country refused to admit Jews who were fleeing the Holocaust of World War II. And more recently, when Iraqi translators, interpreters and intelligence officers were refused promised immigration to the U.S. and were subsequently murdered by the terrorists they helped us fight against.

We are much less likely to be the victims of terrorist attacks by Syrian refugees than to be killed in a plane crash or … now that I think of it, in a mass shooting by an angry, disturbed young white man with an assault rifle.

Steve & Karen Swoope,

Colfax