Fox Lake children need own school

Fox Lake Elementary School closes in 2009.  How did we get to this juncture?  

As I recall, in the mid 1960s, school consolidation was mandatory and the Fox Lake and Randolph schools were to be part of the same school district. Plans were moving forward with a new high school to be built halfway between both communities with the name of Meadow Wood School. I was in seventh grade at the time and only remember bits and pieces of what was to be the future of our educational system.  However, one thing stood out very vividly in my mind at the time, adults acting like spoiled children who weren't getting their way.  As a child of that era, you never questioned why this was happening as parents always knew what was in their child's best interest. To make a long story short, there was no consolidation with Randolph and the Waupun School District accepted Fox Lake to become a part of its district. Rather than bringing two communities together only four miles apart, we now were part of a school system 15 miles away. Grades 1 through 6 remained in Fox Lake and grades 7 through 12 were bused to Waupun for middle school and high school.

Fast forward to 2009. More than 40 years have passed and the Fox Lake Elementary School is closed.  All children, ages 5 and up will be bused out of our community, with the youngest having to start their school day at 7:45 a.m. This means waiting for the bus in good weather or bad at 7 a.m. to 7:15 a.m, not in front of your home, but wherever the school system decides will be the bus stops for this area.  You're probably thinking this is no big deal, waiting for a bus isn't so bad. Take it from someone who had to stand out in the worst of all Wisconsin winters at 7 a.m. as a teenager, it was brutal. Now consider those grade school children. Those of us who chose to live in a city expected our children to have an elementary school in that city so they could walk or bicycle to school. I realize the rural children have to ride a bus to school every day, but they are picked up either by their house or at the end of their driveway, not blocks away from home.

We all want what's best for our children. I know many parents in Alto and Waupun are upset with their elementary schools closing as well.  Children from those two communities will have to travel further to attend school, too.  How about the miles for the Fox Lake children? Middle school and high school I can understand, but not grade school.

I am appealing to all mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, foster parents and concerned citizens. Would you want your grade school children traveling as far as these Fox Lake children? Would you want your little children to be picked up by a bus blocks away from your home unsupervised and in below zero weather? With pedophiles living in all of our communities, would you want your little children to have to wait for a bus any distance from your home? I wouldn't.

My hope, no, my prayer is that the Waupun School Board as well as all citizens in all communities within the Waupun Area School District will accept the petitions from the city and township of Fox Lake to detach from the Waupun Area School District.  Well over 1,000 signatures tell me that we want to keep our elementary school open and we want our children attending a school district community only four miles away.

Had our parents had cooler heads and discussed things respectfully as adults should and considered the children, what a difference it would have made.

—Mary A. Perkins

Fox Lake, mother

Graduate of Waupun High School - Class of '67