Murrays in the News
Mike and his family were featured in a June 5th Des Moines Sunday Register story about school closings, excerpted below:
Ames, Ia. - Kate Murray is only 7 years old, and already she has been through two school closures - something children at almost 100 Iowa schools have endured in the past five years and a trend that will continue.
Kate experienced her first school closure when she was 4. Crawford Elementary, a half-mile from her home, shut its doors before she even got a chance to attend kindergarten. Her family had moved to the neighborhood specifically so Kate and her two younger sisters could walk to the school.
"She was absolutely devastated when they closed Crawford," said Kate's mother, Melissa Murray, who had taken Kate to the school's carnivals, socials and playground. "She already thought of it as her school."
Then, two weeks ago, Kate was told that Roosevelt Elementary - the school where she attended kindergarten and first grade by taking a 30- to 45-minute bus ride twice a day - would also close. Wednesday was the school's last day.
"She was in tears - not taking it too well," Melissa Murray said of Kate. "Her best friends are not going to go to school with her. She's been having problems the last week or so after that whole thing was announced."
As the school year comes to an end, hundreds of families in towns including Ames, Charles City and Welton are feeling hurt, sadness, frustration and anger over the latest wave of school closures.
Mike Murray, an engineer who is the father of 7-year-old Kate, is making a third bid for the Ames school board this fall. He and his wife said they feel betrayed by what they described as broken promises by district officials that they wouldn't close schools.
They also fear it will happen again, with even more budget shortfalls looming in the future.
"We're quite concerned that they'd want to cut another school," said Mike Murray, who blames the Ames school board more than state legislators over what has happened. "I think in Ames, we're facing a crisis of choices, not a crisis in funding."
Ames, Ia. - Kate Murray is only 7 years old, and already she has been through two school closures - something children at almost 100 Iowa schools have endured in the past five years and a trend that will continue.
Kate experienced her first school closure when she was 4. Crawford Elementary, a half-mile from her home, shut its doors before she even got a chance to attend kindergarten. Her family had moved to the neighborhood specifically so Kate and her two younger sisters could walk to the school.
"She was absolutely devastated when they closed Crawford," said Kate's mother, Melissa Murray, who had taken Kate to the school's carnivals, socials and playground. "She already thought of it as her school."
Then, two weeks ago, Kate was told that Roosevelt Elementary - the school where she attended kindergarten and first grade by taking a 30- to 45-minute bus ride twice a day - would also close. Wednesday was the school's last day.
"She was in tears - not taking it too well," Melissa Murray said of Kate. "Her best friends are not going to go to school with her. She's been having problems the last week or so after that whole thing was announced."
As the school year comes to an end, hundreds of families in towns including Ames, Charles City and Welton are feeling hurt, sadness, frustration and anger over the latest wave of school closures.
Mike Murray, an engineer who is the father of 7-year-old Kate, is making a third bid for the Ames school board this fall. He and his wife said they feel betrayed by what they described as broken promises by district officials that they wouldn't close schools.
They also fear it will happen again, with even more budget shortfalls looming in the future.
"We're quite concerned that they'd want to cut another school," said Mike Murray, who blames the Ames school board more than state legislators over what has happened. "I think in Ames, we're facing a crisis of choices, not a crisis in funding."
posted by Paul Hudson at 3:05 PM
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