I have lived in Tisbury for 31 years, Martha’s Vineyard for 41 years. Our three children went to the Tisbury School. They were very well prepared for high school by our excellent teaching staff when they graduated. I helped start the parent teacher organization at the Tisbury School, and I was a longtime substitute school nurse. I spent five years on the Tisbury planning board. I cannot remember a single time that we did not as a town support our school. The proposal for a new school has been a difficult issue to oppose, as demonstrated at last week’s town meeting. There are people who want to keep our classic school, and they were afraid to vote no.

I have been trying to sort out facts from fiction about the school project. Last week at the town meeting it came to the attention of the taxpayers that there has been a strong effort within the Tisbury school community, for at least the last five years, to build a new school. Ben Robinson, planning board chairman, presented school committee minutes of votes taken dating back to 2013 that document this. This is a fact. Here are a few more:

• The school building committee, made up mostly of teachers and administrators, voted quickly, after the Manter well site was discounted as a location for a new school, to build new. They had almost zero discussion about a renovation and addition project.

• Our school has been allowed to deteriorate deliberately. It is called deferred maintenance, which I and others call neglect. See for yourself: fogged windows, peeling paint, floors down to bare wood (yes, there are real wood floors in our school) rust and a general disheveled appearance of the rooms. When I asked why, I was told because we are building a new school.

• The trailers need to go away. The cafeteria is small. An addition could accomplish this goal and free up those remaining interior spaces for other uses.

• The state prefers renovations over new construction. It also offers funding for renovations, sometimes more than for building new.

• The state does not require moving walls to create 900 square-foot classrooms for renovations.

I believe the claim that a renovation and addition would cost more than a new school has not been substantiated.

When I was a child, my mother used to instruct me and my siblings at Christmas to make a list of what we wanted, and what we needed. This is the right time to look again at what we want vs. what we need. Starting over would be better than going down the rabbit hole with a wildly expensive, overbuilt, high-maintenance new school. Please vote no on question one on April 24.

Marie Laursen
Vineyard Haven