The question isn’t why supporting our school was worth my time. The question is, how could it not be?

When l began working with other folks in town to form the Leverett Education Foundation, more than a few people asked me why I felt this was important. After all, my children left Leverett Elementary School years ago. Hardly any of the teachers or administrators I knew when my children were at the school are still working there, and I had a full plate of other responsibilities, including community obligations. But it was just that—community—that urged me to do what I could to help LES remain what I knew it to be: the heart of our community.

I believe that our first responsibility as adults is to care for and educate our children to the best of our ability.  That would be reason enough to help support our school in the challenging financial situation Leverett faces. But LES is also, in so many ways, the center of our small town, whether it’s Harvest Festival in the fall, Sundaes and Board Games Night in the winter, Town Meeting in the spring—the school is where we gather, where we play, where we deliberate, where we celebrate this very special place in which we live.

Yet even beyond the education it provides to our children and our neighbors’ children, beyond being the location of so many community activities, there is also a very practical reason to support LES. The reputation that Leverett Elementary School has earned for the quality of its teachers and the excellence of its educational program is one of the most important reasons why young families come to Leverett. And we need those young families—to invigorate our community with new perspectives and new ideas, to increase our tax base so we can continue to fund the essential services we need, and to maintain the value of our properties by demonstrating through their decision to settle here what a wonderful place this is to live.

So, I guess when you think about it, the question isn’t why supporting our school was worth my time. The question is, how could it not be?

-Steve Weiss, LEF Board President