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Deirdre Macnab: Make correct plan

Public education is the promise America makes to its children. It is the common denominator of a thousand cultures, languages and histories — it is what binds us as a nation.

As a firm believer in top quality education, I have served as a member of the 70,000-student Nashville school board, the Atlanta school superintendent’s special task force to preserve an important neighborhood high school, and as the Florida League of Women Voters state president for six years. Top quality competitive public schools are without question, our community’s and our country’s most essential investment for our future.

Here in Steamboat, I have watched first hand as parents and residents have analyzed and discussed this complicated, multi-step $92 million spending plan and come up with a multitude of reasons why the school board’s proposal is the wrong plan, including resistance to moving the high-performing high school out of the core of downtown.



I think we can all agree it is important to invest in Steamboat’s children, but let’s make sure it’s the right plan.  As Ben Franklin famously said, “Measure three times, and once.” 

Just a few years ago, Steamboat’s voters said no to another school bonding amendment — one that would have also moved the high school. Voters said “no,” and the school board properly slowed the process down and vastly increased the stakeholder involvement of parents, teachers and local business people.



The end result was a much better plan that received strong community buy-in, and today, Steamboat has some of the best schools in the state. I urge voters to vote no on the proposed plan, and by doing so, say yes to a better plan that is more deliberative and inclusive of stakeholders.

Our children’s future is at stake — let’s measure three times, cut once.

Deirdre Macnab

Steamboat Springs


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