Imagine yourself standing in the middle of a group of people pouring out your soul about something you have researched and prepared diligently to deliver, only to have the group not acknowledge you, not look up, continuing to draw or doodle on the papers in front of them, play on their phones or laptops, basically do anything other than acknowledge that you are speaking or that have they have the slightest interest in what you are sharing, that is how I would describe addressing the members of the board at a school board meeting.

It feels like we are fighting against a Good Ole boys club in Warren County. How deep does it go and how many entities are involved in this?

If you want to feel like you are truly living in one of those nightmares where you are screaming as loud as you can, but no sound will come out, try having a different outlook than those in the “good ole boys club” and even if you are right, they will have you questioning your own sanity.

That is how many of us community members in Youngsville feel right now. We are having a real hard time getting people to talk to us, provide answers, or work alongside us while making decisions that impact our kids, our community, and our lives.

There is a group of us who have come together and have been working hard digging through past documents, facts, figures, and assessments trying to get the district to understand, going down this same path we have been going down is not suddenly going to lead us to somewhere new.

We share a lot of the same goals for the school district but how to attain those goals couldn’t be further off. The community of Youngsville is not in denial that schools need to be consolidated, never once have we argued that. Our argument is the how, where, and why.

Warren County is huge. The population is spread out all over — every inch of it. We are simply saying the schools that do remain open need to be in the center of the county to support the fact that we are a rural area.

The school district doesn’t seem to want to consider this because the Youngsville high school and Youngsville community has never been the popular choice. This is evident by the lack of attention our school and our students get from the district.

Do you see what I see when looking at a Warren County map? I see two schools in the center of this vast county, surrounded by communities and support, and I see one only a few miles from the New York border and two in the southern half of the county.

Why wouldn’t we want to keep the school where the communities are? I am beginning to wonder how many residents of Warren County have ever been to or participated in a school board meeting.

I know I was someone who had absolutely no interest in this until all of the sudden my son’s high school is on the chopping block because our district apparently has no money, and we don’t have enough students to justify keeping schools. I attended my first few and I have to say I am more than concerned at the way the board appears to blow through money like there is no tomorrow.

I witnessed this week, for example, an administrator might say “OK quote from CPG this is for our copy paper for the rest of the school year…” Board President Paul Mangione will ask if anyone has questions and they move to the next item.

“Quote for our gaggle for internet security for students, and quote for Sophos for more security.” Mangione again does anyone have any questions and — boom, just like that the district spent $24,343 on copy paper and $103,391 on internet security. I am not here to argue that we don’t need internet security or copy paper but why $24,000 worth of copy paper when our kids have to use laptops to turn all their work in anyway? For me, this was eye opening, and I started digging.

Going back through record after record, meeting after meeting, reading what the district is spending money on. I have to tell you; it will make you sick to your stomach especially when you know the district is crying poor and our schools are going to have to close. I have heard “oh that is small amounts of money it doesn’t make enough of a difference” come directly from administration.

I am here to say as a taxpayer and very concerned community member, it does add up and it adds up quickly!

No one ever really questions it so why change it? This, along with other facts like closing some of the buildings the district spends money on maintaining, (closing Anderson building, central office, and Sugar Grove Elementary would save them a million dollars in utilities alone over their ten period they are discussing) are things that the tax payers in the Youngsville community have been working on to help the district find the money to keep our buildings that actually house students, in the most logical location, open.

It seems however, no one wants to listen or hear us. The focus of our group is not just to save Youngsville, it is focused on saving the district as a whole, no one wants to do this again in 10 years.

We collectively could be a powerful entity and a very productive one if our voices weren’t falling on deaf ears. The frustration that comes with doors being closed in your face at every turn did get the better of one member of our community and that was of course posted everywhere less than 24 hours later, but the positive things we have turned over that could save the district and our communities goes completely unnoticed.

We just need someone to care about what we are saying, hear us out, look into things with us. We have a lot of really good information that I think would change opinions on this whole scenario.

Rachel King is a Youngsville resident who began the group Save WCSD.