Letter to the Editor in Sunday's Chapel Hill Herald

[Susana Dancy]

Dear Carrboro High and Culbreth communities,

Please consider writing a letter to the editor asking the county commission and school board to make the Arts Wing the top school construction priority — and to find the funding this year.  If the “recession discount” of 30% continues on public bid projects, the Arts Wing would cost only $3.8 million, which is within reach even during this difficult economy.  

Generally speaking, newspapers require your name, address and phone number so they can verify the identity of the person who sent the letter (name and town of residence are published; the other information is not).  Short letters are better than long ones.

Herald-Sun (including Chapel Hill Herald):  http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/tools/letterstoed/letterform.cfm?sendLetter=letters
N&O (including Chapel Hill News):  http://www.newsobserver.com/484/story/433256.html
Carrboro Citizen:  edi...@carrborocitizen.com

I received an e-mail from a County Commissioner last night that said, “Thank you for your email and I encourage all Carrboro High parents and students to keep advocating for the arts wing.”  If you have not written to the school board and county commission (recently or at all), I encourage you to do so now.  You can reach them at allboar...@chccs.k12.nc.us and http://www.co.orange.nc.us/contact.htm  They want to hear from us.

Public support for this project provides political cover for elected officials, so please speak up!  It matters for current and future CHS students.  

Thanks,

Susana

p.s. Please forward this to others in your network and ask them to show their support, too.

Here's a letter that appeared in Sunday’s Chapel Hill Herald:

http://heraldsun.southernheadlines.com/opinion/chhletters/

It's time to finish Carrboro High School

Now that it's apparent that funding for Chapel Hill/Carrboro School District's 11th elementary school (about $20 million) will not be available this year, I plead with the school board to make its top funding priority the completion of construction at Carrboro High School (less than $4 million for the third wing).

The Carrboro High School theatre, music and arts programs face major space constraints. Carrboro High School's highly successful production of Little Shop of Horrors last weekend was performed at Culbreth Middle School because Carrboro High lacks an auditorium.

After Sunday's final show everything -- floor panels, walls, doors, furniture, and the large, delicate Audrey the Plant puppets had to be hauled back to the high school via multiple trips in a rented U-Haul, and in parents' cars and minivans. Finding room for everything at the high school in the one, standard classroom-sized room that the theater department shares with the arts department was nearly impossible.

Please finish what you started (and approved years ago) and finish building Carrboro High School.

Jim Rogalski
Chapel Hill
May 2, 2009