To the editor:

Most of the scenarios being reviewed by the Elementary School Task Force to address their current budget issues include closing Wakarusa Valley Elementary.

Wakarusa is in the heart of the urban growth area designated by the Horizon 2020 Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Closing Wakarusa flies in the face of the plan’s goals. You want to stunt growth in Douglas County? Close the only community school in the designated urban growth zone.

Our “leaders” need to stay on track with the comprehensive Horizon 2020 plan. Don’t let USD 497’s only rural school turn into a political scapegoat to appease the “Save Our School” crowd who wants to keep schools within two miles of each other open regardless of the cost to make them ADA-compliant.

It’s deceiving to look at a cropped map on USD 497’s website and think that rural children will have an additional five-mile commute. In reality, it can add an hour each way to a commute that is already 30 minutes each way. Who is going to purchase a home 20 miles from the nearest school and subject their child to a three-hour bus ride every day? Consider the consequences of closing Wakarusa compared with closing Cordley, which is 1.6 miles from New York. It won’t disrupt families’ lives or reduce property values nearly as much. Wakarusa Valley Elementary is not only a community school but the only community building in rural Lawrence. It is needed to preserve the rural character intended by Horizon 2020.