In the heart of Ridgefield, our students are rising as champions for the future. Meet Lyla and Oliver, two students in the Ridgefield School District, who are passionate about Propositions 10 and 11.
Lyla, a spirited first-grader, is on a mission. With determination in her eyes, she's been pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, and sparking conversations with her neighbors. When asked why these bonds matter, her answer is as clear as a bell: "The bonds are important because I want to patch the roofs so that I don’t have to go around buckets and cones because of the leaks. I want us to get more schools so we don’t have to get more portables."
And her brother Oliver? He's seen the overcrowding firsthand in their middle school. "Just in my 5th grade at my school there are 240 kids – we have almost 30 kids in every class and it can feel cramped. At the end of each day we have WIN groups (which stands for 'What I Need'). Two WIN groups for the 5th grade meet in the cafeteria – mine has 40 kids and the other has 80 and we are all in the cafeteria for our WIN groups trying to work at the same time." It's a startling reality that speaks volumes.
The need is here now, and it's a call to action for all of us. The challenge we face is real – every school in the Ridgefield School District is over capacity, unable to give students the learning spaces they need to thrive. We need your support to vote yes for Propositions 10 and 11, to mend the cracks and alleviate the squeeze in our schools. Let's bond together for our Ridgefield and our future.
Read the rest of our interview, to learn why passing these Propositions are so important and what it means to our students to watch our community come together.
What does “bond together” mean to you?
Lyla: Bond Together means we need to pass the bond together.
Oliver: To me, Bond Together means that to pass these two bonds, we need to work well together and come together to pass them.
Why now?
Lyla: Because so many people are moving here that we need more schools. The new people need a place to go to school.
Oliver: We need to pass them right now because for the last, what feels like, billion years it hasn’t passed, and sometimes we were just 60 votes away – which means that YOUR VOTE COUNTS! Also, the population of Ridgefield is rapidly increasing, and people from all over are moving here. With more students, our schools get more crowded unless we get more schools.
What would you say to someone who is on the fence about voting yes?
Lyla: Well, I don’t think I would say anything because I’m so young, but if I were to say something, I would say it's important so their kids can go to school, or if they don’t have kids then their neighbors’ kids can go to school. They are probably friends with someone who has kids, so they would want to support their friends!
Oliver: I would ask them - did you go to school? Most likely, they did. So then I would ask them about how many kids were at your middle school? I would ask them how many were in your class? If they said 20-30 (which isn’t too big), I would ask them how do you think there were only that many kids in your classes? It was probably because people voted for and contributed their money to help your school be big enough and make it as good as it was.
As we delve into the perspectives of Lyla and Oliver, their passion ignites a fire within us all. It's a call to action, a reminder of the significance of our collective efforts in shaping the future of Ridgefield. Let's heed their words, let's bond together for our Ridgefield and our future.
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