“Change is inevitable, change is constant.” But that doesn’t make it any easier when you actually become face to face with it. That’s what dozens of schools across the state of Maine are doing in the near future. In order to save money, the state has decided to consolidate schools in order to make cuts at the administrative level.

I must admit that this consolidation will affect me little, being a senior and all, but I cannot help caring about what will become of the Monmouth school system. Monmouth Academy has always seemed so independent and strong. Now, it’s merging with four other schools in the area: Richmond, Dresden, Farmingdale, and Hallowell. It’s hard to imagine Monmouth having to rely on anyone else for anything.

One of the main concerns of Monmouth residents and teachers is that our schools will lose their local representation. Our recent superintendent, Steve Cottrell, has always been around if someone had an issue to discuss. He was helpful, friendly and knew most everyone by first name. That is exactly the way Monmouth is, the way it always has been. We have prided ourselves on being a close-knit school system. Now, with this consolidation and only one superintendent for five school systems, it will be harder to get our voices heard, our problems addressed.

Not everything about this consolidation is negative, however. Being from a small school, I feel that we couldn’t be offered some of the things students from other schools had to their advantage. Because there aren’t as many teachers in a small school, there aren’t as many courses to choose from. Sometimes classes can’t even be fit into a student’s schedule since it is only offered once a day because there is only one teacher to teach it. It has been mentioned that students interested in taking courses not available at their own school, could be bussed to other schools in their administrative district to complete their desired course. This would be a good opportunity for students who would otherwise not be able to take these extra classes.

What’s sad is that this consolidation will affect the elementary school children the most, and it seems as though those parents are the least informed of everyone about what it is that’s happening. I don’t know if people are uninformed, apathetic, or simply believe it won’t affect their children. But people do need to start taking an interest. This consolidation is happening, slowly, but it’s happening. And it will affect your children. Maybe not a lot, but it will. I believe there are two ways to deal with change. The easiest way is to sit around whining and dreading it, or put in a little more effort to learn about what it is, and be proactive. All I have to say is that if you choose the easy road, sit around, whine and do nothing; you have no right at all to complain about the outcome. These are your children, and their future. Be proactive.