I am writing to respond to Chip Ainsworth’s comments in a column about the Pioneer Valley Regional School district’s failing to fund capital projects in comparison to other local districts. Mr. Ainsworth set this rural public high school up against the wealth of an urban private school whose families arrived in Volvos. Funding capital projects takes money that the Pioneer district does not have due to the disparity in funding rural districts in comparison to urban districts and speaks to the significant decline in student population at Pioneer.
Taxes that might otherwise go to our public school follow students out when families make other decisions about where their children should get an education. Pioneer has the lowest starting salaries for teachers in Franklin County and what monies are spent in the school are rightly going primarily into supporting these teachers. The team spirit, athleticism and strong coaching of the PVRS baseball team should be celebrated in the pages of the Recorder rather than denigrating the field on which they accomplish such inspiring play. To use Mr. Ainsworth’s own comparison, it was a Schitty thing to do.
Deborah A. Potee
Northfield