To the editor:

Julie Kelemen asks the community to come together as one around the school budget crisis: “This is not about one school or building or a community being lost.”

This is a good goal, but it’s easy to say if your school is not at risk. Here’s a proposal: I will sacrifice my son’s school (and a host of other cuts) for the good of all IF parents who don’t risk having their school closed will sacrifice something of equal value. Like maybe their school?

Here is what my second-grader will lose if his school is closed: His four closest friends (they would be shipped to different schools), walking to school ever again, the soccer team he has played on for three years, parent-funded Spanish Club, halls filled with friends and parents who adore him for who he is, an important historical link to Lawrence’s Underground Railroad, an ethnically, culturally, and economically diverse student body, the community anchor for our neighborhood, and all the staff and teachers who greet him by name.

A school is a community, and that is good for education. If those who don’t risk having their school closed are willing to sacrifice something of equal value, then a communitywide conversation can begin. If not, school closings should be taken off the table. Begin the conversation on an equal footing, and a real discussion of priorities can occur. Then we can work together to keep Lawrence a great community.

Lora Jost,

Lawrence