This is an exceptional time for the Butler School District and the proposal to close several elementary schools in a cost saving effort that has made for a vigorous public conversation. However, I’m troubled by several common comments I continue to hear.

Ours is not a growing district. While a low student-to-teacher ratio is nice, maintaining the current scenario is sacrificing money to maintain buildings as opposed to investing directly in student education, albeit with a slightly higher class size, one more in line with national averages.

Public education is a living and evolving thing. I am not always comfortable with the way the world changes, but trying to curtail the inevitable tends to be more damaging than embracing change and moving towards the best interest of those served. Consolidation could mean more money for books and new technology. Continuing to pay for half-empty buildings will lead to stagnation in our schools and our community. We will be paying more and receiving a deficit as a return.

As a parent preparing to enroll a daughter, I feel a responsibility to be invested in her education. As a former high school English teacher, I have seen how education has developed and I know there is a push at the state level to consolidate public schools. I am not thrilled by that prospect, but it is a road we have been driving down for too long to assume we’re going to turn the car around.

I understand that members of the school board are in a similar situation with their own children in school. I have a difficult time trying to connive a reality in which they were working against their own children — and for what reward? Any such suggestion is feeble or malicious.

We who have children in our schools need to remember that one of the larger factors in our children’s academic success is our active participation. We should find comfort reflecting on that — and move forward with reason.