Are you kidding me?
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5/20/2008
I am a teacher in Plummer. If you could see our schools, you would be hard-pressed to believe it is possible we spend more than the national average; I'm thinking it is a statistical glitch or a downright untruth. This is a small, impoverished school on a reservation and it looks like you would probably expect it to.
The building I work in was built in the early part of the 1900s. It has not been updated. When I started working here, there were holes in the lath and plaster that were so large you could see all the way outside. The radiators cause burns to students if they accidentally brush their arms on them. I have no bulletin boards or storage. My desks have probably been here since the 1960s. There is not very much technology in the building. There is no cafeteria and no where for students to sit at lunch time.
Depending on the year, somewhere between 60 and 80% of our students are on free and reduced lunch; that means the majority of our students come from impoverished backgrounds. We carry NO current levies or indebtedness to the community. We tried to pass a levy to build a new high school and it was voted down by a 60+% majority. Show me any other school district in the country that is not carrying any current levies and I will show you another impoverished school district. There is no community support for what we are trying to do here, partly because of a residual native american suspicion toward institutions but also because of the impoverished nature of our community.
In short, regardless of what your statistics might say about Plummer, and as hard as I work for my students, it is NOT a "Best Place".
Laura | Moscow, ID