Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to our incredible community for showing up in force to support our students and teachers. Your presence at the recent school board meeting sent a powerful message: we care deeply about the future of our schools, and we will not sit quietly when our educators and kids are being shortchanged. The strength, solidarity, and sincerity in that room were palpable, and I’m proud to be part of a community that stands up for what’s right.

Now, let’s talk about the elephant in the room — the almost two hour wait before anyone was allowed to speak. Typically, public comment is held toward the beginning of the meeting. But curiously — very curiously — on this particular evening, the schedule was flipped. Our community members, teachers, and students were made to wait through hours of routine agenda items before finally being given the mic. One might almost think someone didn’t want those heartfelt, honest, and inconvenient truths aired too early in the evening. But despite the delay, you stayed. You listened. And when the time finally came, you spoke truth to power.

To every single person who sat through that marathon meeting or watched online just to support our educators—thank you. You made a difference. And we’re just getting started.

With gratitude

and determination

Josiah Wentz

Owatonna, MN