Encouraging dreams, shaping a community

I support preservation of Polk Elementary School. You already have at your fingertips many statistics that speak to the good academic work that Polk is doing with its students, so I want to focus instead on the importance of the college culture that Polk instills in its students.

I believe that the “We're Going to College” program creates a strong mindset of sustained attention to the goal of a college education. Together with Daybreak Rotary's Legacy of Learning program, they provide the opportunity for students to focus on a tangible, achievable goal of attending college. The possibility of doing away with an elementary school that encourages its students to dream big would be a loss to the Cedar Rapids community as a whole.

Furthermore, Polk is an anchor for the Mound View community, and in closing it, I believe that you will do irreparable damage to that neighborhood. A community does not just have a school; it is shaped by it - by the parents rallying around their children, by the teachers, staff and administration's commitment to the community, by the children themselves.

Mound View and Polk are vital elements of Cedar Rapids' past, and I hope that you consider the children, educated at Polk Elementary, to be heralds of its future.

Claire L. Kovacs

Cedar Rapids