To the Saranac Lake Central School District Board of Education and the district facilities planning subcomittee:

As a Saranac Lake native, a practicing attorney in our community and, most importantly, the proud mother of three young children, I write to you today asking that you place the well-being of our students above all else when you cast your vital vote.

I do not need to remind you why Saranac Lake is unique. We have a sense of community stronger than most.

We are family-focused, outgoing, helpful and kind. We believe in our citizens and we work diligently to help them succeed (in whatever venture they pursue).

We create strong-willed, hard-working citizens who know the importance of service. Our graduates are successful doctors, politicians, journalists, business executives, artists, philanthropists and more. And when we join other communities and environments, we shine a light on our small town, as it was a crucial component of our successes.

Some of us are even lucky enough to return to Saranac Lake to raise our families. Others visiting Saranac Lake feel the sense of community, and immediately feel drawn to find a way to no longer be just a visitor, but a full-time resident.

We are not a wealthy community. We never have been. We are a community that works hard to create opportunities for our youth. When you ask the community to help support our youth, we show up in numbers. It was our community that opened Mt. Pisgah. It was our community that drove the creation and renovation of the Civic Center. It was our community that created and continues to host the best Winter Carnival. And here we are again.

You are volunteers, elected by the district residents, asked to make difficult decisions. Please listen to your constituents, work together with the municipalities, and make the right decision: to keep Bloomingdale School open.

Yes, our enrollment is down. Our residents are being pushed to other districts or choosing to homeschool. We are asking you to be proactive instead of reactive and consider these three propositions:

1) Restructure Bloomingdale School as the district-wide building for our universal pre-K and kindergarten programs.

The school was built for young children. It is a small building that nurtures its students, providing a family-like education perfect for our students that are transitioning into the classroom environment.

We have neglected our pre-K program for far too long. Many families are forced to commute over 40 minutes to our neighboring communities to enroll and pay for their students to receive a quality education. Other parents leave the work-force to homeschool their children rather than gamble their children’s futures. The lack of stability of our programs drives families to look at other options.

We do not know from year-to-year what facilities will house pre-k, nor how many classes will be offered. Will there be three classes at one daycare, two classes at a public school, one class at a catholic school or a combination of all three? I understand the funding for these programs fluctuates, but other communities have found a way to successfully navigate the hurdles while providing clear direction to its families. We deserve the same.

2) Work with others to be a part of the solution to our housing crisis.

We know there are students that are moving out-of-district because they cannot afford to live here anymore. The cost of a single-family residence or a three bedroom apartment is unattainable for most of our residents.

The district owns land that it is not utilizing or that it is underutilizing that could serve our community better, if that land was developed for housing. Everyone is pointing the finger elsewhere. Why can’t the district also be a part of the solution?

Edgewood field is too small for a full-sized field, but it would be perfect for an apartment complex like those on Willow Way. Adjacent to Neil Street, the district owns land that could be developed to expand a sought-after family-friendly neighborhood. The district also quietly acquired title to the Black Fly softball field and the 40 acres it sits on in Ray Brook, but failed to use the field for any sporting events.

If our need is not so great to utilize the field in the first year of ownership, can we reallocate that resource to create a housing community similar to the Homestead project in Lake Placid? Our youth is our future. We need to be able to house them.

3) Let us consider the impact of dissolving our middle school to make room for the Bloomingdale students in the already-crammed Petrova.

Without a middle school, we are told we (a) lose our pre-k program, (b) educate kindergarten through sixth grade at Petrova and (c) seventh grade through 12th grade are at the high school. We then have 12-year-old girls, in their most impressionable years, mixing with 18-year-old boys (the gender in this example is interchangeable).

Middle school is hard enough; let us protect our students. We do not need to thrust our children into high school before they are intellectually or emotionally ready. Doing so will have lasting impacts. The well-being and safety of our children should be at the forefront of your minds.

To place greater weight on the opinion of an out-of-town consulting firm over the district residents that elected you is irresponsible. When faced with the desire to build a turf field to better support our youth, you simply asked us: would we like to build a turf field aware it would increase our taxes by a nominal amount?

Tell us now: how much will each taxpayer save per year by closing Bloomingdale? Ask us now: would we rather close Bloomingdale School to save those nominal dollars per year or work together to come up with a collective creative solution(s) to protect our students and our community? The answer is always community-first. We are willing to contribute to protect our youth. We stand united, and we ask you to make the right choice. Your decision will affect Saranac Lake for generations to come.

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Ann Telfer lives in Saranac Lake.