A letter in the Jan. 16 Advertiser Democrat suggested that people who are upset about school closings in School Administrative District 17 should “look in the mirror.”

I did. I have supported the SAD 17 budget every year. I had expected that the district was maintaining our schools. Too much to ask?

The district assured us repeatedly that it supported the concept of community schools. Is it too much to be surprised at the sudden change of policy? The people of West Paris were not given any warning that the Agnes Gray Elementary School was in danger of closing.

Now most of the windows are boarded up to inform us the game is over. It is the most prominent structure in town, and driving by it is a punch in the gut, every time.

When West Paris students were taken to Paris, there was a plan to send some of the Paris students to Hebron to make room for the new folks. Parents objected, and the plan was scuttled. What was the problem? We are told it is just fine to send West Paris students to Norway and/or Paris. Are some families more important than others?

Our school was the heart of our community. There is an old saying that whose ox is being gored determines who is upset. To object to a school closing is not “divisive.” The administration may succeed in consolidation and the abandonment of decades of promises, but don’t expect West Paris people to be happy.

Rodney Abbott, West Paris