To the editor:

When my daughter was in school at New York Elementary 15 years ago, the principal came to me and said the wooden school sign needed to be replaced. Could I put in a stone sign? We put a stone in place, and every morning, I’d walk my child to school and carry my mallet and chisels and I’d carve on the stone for 15 to 20 minutes. It was decided that the date that the school began should be on the sign. I went to the history museum and learned that the school was the second school established in Lawrence in 1869.

In those years, we fought for our school and won. The battle to keep was not waged only by the East Lawrence Neighborhood, but by the community as a whole. I can assure you that in 1869, there were budget crises, just as there were in the 1990s, just as there are now, just as there will be 15 years from now, 50 years from now. The importance of neighborhood schools was evident to our founders and does not change.

I implore every person in Lawrence to come to the support of every school in our city and, at this critical time, when the money-counters point fingers at the bottom line, we say, as a people, our neighborhood schools are who we are. There is no bottom line to define that. We stand together and give the support that each school needs and we strengthen our neighborhoods, rich or poor alike. This is who we are.