March 19, 2024

Vote yes for sensible Berg plan

The schools in Newton, Iowa really do mean a lot to me. My family moved to Newton when I was in the eighth grade because my father was on the school board in the smaller town where we lived, and he knew the difficulty of getting teachers there due to World War II. He also felt that the broader curriculum here would benefit me.

After my Newton-native husband graduated from law school, we returned to Newton to live, and soon I found myself on the committee for the Berg School bond issue. I was a teacher, and with baby boomer children everywhere, the need was clear. We worked very hard to inform voters about the problem. Berg was built and thousands of Newton students have studied there.
The thousands, however, were too much for the original structure. Additions and modifications were necessary as time went by. However, that passage of time and the changes made have created other problems that include the outdated mechanical systems, bad traffic patterns and enclosed rooms.

It’s time to step up again and vote for a sensible plan that will keep the best of the complex and replace the worst. The timing is right since the current bond debt will soon be paid off.  We can then obtain the needed money with a favorably small increase in the tax rate. I believe that our public schools should be so good that everyone will want their children to be there. Good buildings are a part of this mix. Let’s pass this referendum so that families now and into the future will find the Newton Schools as attractive and as good as they have been for my family all these many years!  Please mark your calendar now and join me in voting “yes” on Tuesday, Sept. 13.

Joan Tyler

Newton