Dear Members of the Bourbon County Board of Education:

I urge you not to close North Middletown Elementary School. This school is the heartbeat of our small but vital community. Small rural communities are often overlooked, underserved, and ignored in favor of institutions in larger towns and cities. Closing their school tells the children in our area that their educational, social, and emotional needs cannot be met locally; therefore, they must go to a “city” where it is assumed things are “better.” The reality is that the people in the public schools located in Paris do not know our children, their unique family structures, the challenges they face, or the gifts they all have. I write this letter from the perspective of someone who has served this community for nearly twelve years as the Pastor of North Middletown Christian Church, as a former public school educator, and as someone who has CHOSEN North Middletown to be her home! I earned a DOCTORATE by studying how small communities are neglected by larger power structures outside the area and how they have tremendous resilience and POWER.

North Middletown has consistently ranked highly in overall test scores. The school's performance draws people to this area! Although it is a small school, it is a model for how effectively education can be delivered in such a setting. You should adopt this model for your other elementary schools rather than change our educational environment to meet yours.

Bussing children across the county is not in their best interests. If you haven’t driven some of these rural, one-lane routes, I invite you to come out here, and I’ll drive you around! It’s impressive to see that large school bus turn around in a tiny driveway at the dead end of Prescott Road! These kids could spend anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes ONE WAY getting to school, or they could go to their neighborhood school and receive valuable education and supplemental nutrition during that wasted time. They will be bused soon enough when they reach sixth grade. Why start when they are so young?

Furthermore, the schools in Paris are already operating at capacity. There is no more room to adequately educate these children. Rather than closing the NMES, perhaps consider bussing children from other rural areas to our excellent school! We would love to have them, and we would soon treat them as members of our wonderful, warm family.

If you drive to other rural towns in Bourbon County, you will see repurposed and/or dilapidated former schools. They are wounds. They are living reminders of what once was, when those communities were vital and thriving on their own before members of a Board of Education, most of whom probably did not truly understand the lived realities of these small places, made decisions that gutted the life of a place. This scenario played out in the 1960s, when education became centralized. Little Rock, Clintonville, Ruddles Mill, and the North Middletown High School (and later Middle School) were all closed. The closures had long-lasting negative effects that we are still reeling from (store closures, reduced commerce, people leaving to be closer to their kids’ schools, loss of employment for school personnel, etc.). Rather than investing in small schools, they were killed. It had very little impact on the people in Paris, but it devastated the small towns.

I am disappointed that the Board Members do not make their contact information publicly available on their webpage. This discourages feedback and input from constituents. A thirty-minute (!) public forum where you expect us to come to you is also insufficient. As public leaders, you should have the courage to hold community forums in the communities directly affected by your decisions. You can still hold these forums at the school’s gymnasium (still one of the best in the county), the Community Shelter, or the North Middletown Christian Church.

Our community has seen how this plays out, and we are not going to stand by while others make decisions that affect us.

Respectfully,

Stephanie Moon, B.M., M.M.Ed., MDiv, DMin

Pastor of North Middletown Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Author of Helping the Small, Rural Church Find Its Power and Create Hope in Its Community