Getting things done

T
he voices of the community and those with ideas and concerns are crucial to the development and growth of our county, town and schools. Evidence of what can be done when a group of common minded people come together to approach an issue rationally can be seen in this week’s front page story Committee agrees on school safety. 
We want to applaud the parents that formed the parent committee on school safety for taking their complaints with the school district and local law enforcement and approaching them in an appropriate manner. While the discussion may have began on Facebook after a threat was made towards these parents’ students last year, they quickly moved the discussion from Facebook to the chambers where Weston County School District No. 1 meet. 
Parents including Ty Checketts, Sean Crabtree and Kati Dean have attended meetings with not only the school district but the Newcastle City Council and local legislators to try to address school safety concerns within WCSD#1. The results of these meetings was the formation of a committee that is working to achieve different goals to better secure our schools and protect our students. 
The actions of these parents coming together to appropriatly address their concerns has in turn resulted in representatives from the school district, city, county attorney’s office, Newcastle Police Department, Weston County Sheriff’s Office and Weston County Emergency Management sitting at the same table to brainstorm ideas and solutions to the safety issues raised by these parents. 
Previously, the News Letter Journal has taken the stance that starting the lynch mob on Facebook is not the way to get things accomplished, especially when working with municipalities but in this instance we can say that Facebook discussion led to the creation of a positive group that will hopefully become an example for how issues should be addressed by the public in the future.