I had no real awareness of the quality of education at Austin High School until I entered college at the University of Colorado.

I didn't consider myself an outstanding student, but through my college years, I began to realize what a great education I received from Austin High School. As my children were graduating, we realized how fortunate we were to rebuild our high school and renovate the grade schools -- easily one of the most important community projects.

We now have the opportunity to observe the incredible work taking place at our schools to ensure that our children are getting first-class educations.

In recent years, we have been realizing that as a nation, we are not competitive in science and math. Recently here in Austin, we made an important step, updating our science and math programs through the renovation of the entire third floor of Austin High.

At the same time, we are sending nearly 100 teachers to the University of Minnesota for advanced classes designed to make them leaders in the special sciences and math. I had the opportunity to join others in the announcement of new science labs and programs at Ellis Middle School.

These advancements are being made possible through the hard work of talented teachers and educational leaders.

With these fine programs in place, we have been made aware that we now face a budget shortfall due to a freeze in funding from the state. To maintain the wonderful programs we have under way through our school system, it is important for our community to support the schools in the form of voting yes for kids to pass an operating referendum.

Richard L. Knowlton

Austin

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