To the Editor,

I would like to take a few minutes of your time to express my feelings on the upcoming referendum vote.

First off I would like to say that our entire family is HHS graduates.

Do I think that there needs to be some things done at the school—yes—but not the frivolous things. I think that the HVAC system needs to be tended to as does the gym floor, roof, windows and elementary bathrooms—maintenance type things. If those were solely put in question one I would vote yes, but when other items were added my vote becomes no/no!

As far as the shop area is concerned why is maintenance items stored in the one section. All of that stuff was stored in the old garage by the football field when I was in school. Would be a lot cheaper to build a garage type building to house those items and use the entire hop area for class as it used to be. Do I think that there needs to be a new entrance—No especially not on the back side of the building. In questions one I repeatedly see the wording small group rooms, flexible learning spaces and student commons. With the class sizes being small why is there a need for more classrooms? The class sizes of 40-50 students haven’t been a regular thing in Henning for quite a few years. That was the normal in the 80s and there were less classrooms. Plus there were way more electives offered on-site.

The need for another gym may or may not be needed. But not from my standpoint of recess use. When we weren’t allowed to go outside for recess—which was a rarity—we utilized the hallways or played games etc in the classroom itself. The talk of needing it for more sporting events doesn’t make sense when in a recent issue of the paper it was noted that the football program was dropping to nine man due to dropping enrollment at both schools involved. Declining enrollment will only carry over to the remaining sports. There seems to be more emphasis put on the extracurricular aspect of things than the core classes of education.

A newly renovated building is not necessarily going to bring families to town when there isn’t much to draw them to the town anymore. You still have the few staple businesses in town but since the nursing home, as an example, closed there is a lot less traffic in town. We are a small town—we aren’t the Perham and Wadena’s of the area.

I would highly urge all out of town citizens that would normally vote at their township location to make sure they go in to vote, either via the early voting option or day of the election. Vote no/no.

Sincerely,

Janine Cronk,

Henning