In just a couple weeks thousands of students will be returning to classes in the Warren County School District.
They will enter classrooms with the object of learning, of preparing themselves for lives on their own, establishing families of their own, and sending their own children into local classrooms to repeat the process.
It is not only imperative that we give those children the best education possible given the available resources, but also allow them to concentrate on their mission without being dragged into the disputes of adults over how that education is delivered.
The WCSD has just taken a break from a fractious, divisive debate on how and where education is delivered in this county. As a result of that debate, which started in earnest more than a year ago, the district has embarked on a long-range plan that attempts to answer many of the criticisms that children in different areas of the district were not treated as equals.
There will be four public high schools serving Warren County - five including the Tidioute Community Charter School -for the foreseeable future. That result has come with the commitment of the school board to millions of dollars worth of improvements and restructuring to allow the retention of four high schools in the face of continued declining enrollment.
The lingering suspicion that any of the four are in imminent danger of closing should be put to rest.
Let's get on with the business of education and entertain debates over things like curriculum, extra-curricular activities and the myriad other issues that contribute to the improvement of educational opportunities for our children.
And, let our children be children.