Opinion - Our View

POSTED: Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Community must rally around school, students

In times of tragedy our community has always pulled together.

The early morning Nov. 5 fire that burned much of Whatcom Middle School has left hundreds of our children without a classroom. When they do return to classes Thursday, Nov. 12, it will be at different schools, split off from some of their friends they were use to attending school with. School bus routes will have to change. Parents' lives will be have to be re-ordered. Kids will need money to replace lost books and notebooks and pens and pencils.

Friday, Nov. 6, officials announced the plan to split up the children and send them to other schools.

- Eighth grade students will now go to Bellingham High School, where officials say they will have their own wing of the school with all of their Whatcom teachers.

- Seventh grade students will go to Fairhaven Middle School, where they will use common parts of the building and a few Fairhaven classrooms and be taught by seventh grade Whatcom teachers.

- Sixth grade students will attend Geneva Elementary School, where there is more room than there used to be since the opening of Wade King Elementary lightened the load. Now Geneva will go back to its relatively crowded state of the recent past. Again the middle school teachers will join the students at the new location.

School district officials will meet with Whatcom parents Monday, Nov. 9, at Bellingham High School to outline plans for transportation and talk about other issues. Geneva and Fairhaven are both schools not near the areas in which Whatcom students live, so there will definitely be transportation issues to be ironed out.

School district officials should be commended for their swift reaction to the fire. It took them less than 48 hours to formulate a plan guaranteeing students continue their education.

It's important as a community that we support the decisions, even if they make our individual lives difficult. There are bound to be inconveniences when you have to find new classroom homes for more than 500 students.

We also think parents should expect changes in the coming weeks and months. Even the best-constructed emergency plans have to be fine-tuned over time.

We would also ask the community to do everything they can to support the teachers. So many of our teachers spend their own time and money gathering the right goods to make learning interesting and exciting for our children. Almost all of those items were lost to flames or the floods of water it took to extinguish the flames. In the coming weeks it may be worth creating fundraisers to help teachers replace what was lost.

A word here also about the efforts of our local firefighters. It isn't that often that our firefighters are called to such a dramatic and dangerous fire. You sometimes hear people in the community wonder why it is we spend so much money on staffing and training firefighters and on expensive equipment such as ladder trucks. Those questions were answered by the Whatcom Middle School fire. Our firefighters battled for more than 13 hours to get the blaze first under control and then completely out. We thank them for the long hours and the strong efforts. It's amazing to see that the façade of the historic building still stands despite the fact much of the roof and second floor were destroyed.

What becomes of that building in the long run is a question that probably won't be answered for months. We suspect there will be an important community discussion before any final decision is made.

In the meantime, though, let's join together as a community and support our students, teachers and other Whatcom Middle School staff members, as they work to find the best way to continue top-quality education for our kids.