Next Tuesday, Grand County voters have an opportunity to vote yes on a voted leeway that will allow Grand County School District to continue offering quality education to the students of this community. We’ve done the math and learned that the leeway would raise our taxes $12 a month, which is 40 cents a day. That’s a small amount that can make a big difference.

The voted leeway can make all the difference in the daily lives of students and teachers. We have a combined 72 years of teaching and we know class size makes a critical difference in student learning. Larger classes mean teachers begin to spend more of their time managing, less time actually teaching. And larger classes mean more student behavior issues, resulting from crowded classrooms.

If the leeway doesn’t pass classes will be larger and programs to support struggling learners will be drastically cut.

The voted leeway can make a big difference in our local economy. Revenues from the leeway will help the district make a minimal amount of staff cuts next year. Without the leeway there will be extensive layoffs, as many as 25 to 35 staff. Losing jobs in our community is not good for our economy. Tax dollars that go to salaries save jobs and keep the money circulating locally.

We feel confident the new measures taken by the school district and school board to assure accounting errors don’t happen in the future are sufficient to ensure our tax dollars will be spent as they should be. The issue before us now is assuring that students in our schools, currently and in the future, have the quality educational opportunities this district has been providing in the past.

For a relatively small increase to each taxpayer we can make a big difference for education in Moab.

—Tom and Linda Warren

teachers at Red Rock Elementary