Too often we focus on the negative in our school system and don’t take time to appreciate the positive.

As reported by the Eagle, last week students, faculty and staff from Seneca Valley’s Ryan Gloyer Middle School spent time in district communities performing various service projects. Most projects were designed to help beautify those communities — whether by pulling weeds in parks, spreading mulch in public areas or putting on a fresh coat of paint where necessary.

In Harmony, a number of students and faculty joined local volunteers to work in the borough’s parks, along Main Street and at the Harmony Museum, and they did a wonderful job. It is no easy task to organize and motivate a large number of seventh- and eighth-graders for such a day, but Seneca Valley’s middle school did just that.

I would like to publicly thank middle school principal Anthony Babusci for overseeing this outstanding program. The students and faculty provided a great service in making our borough look even nicer; I’m sure they accomplished the same wherever they worked.

We’re often too quick with our criticism of schools and too slow to acknowledge the good they do. Here is a program that needs to be praised.

Cathy Rape,

Harmony Borough mayor