The Board of Education, coupled with school administrators and concerned parents, are still in the process of building a strategic plan to help map out the future of the Butler County School System.

While the plan is still in its early stages, workshop attendees have already identified seven basic goals for the school system to strive towards. They include: school climate, academic achievement, facilities, personnel, finances/resources, extracurricular/community, and communications/public relations.

One goal which stands out to us are the need for more financial support - primarily, local - which in turn would allow the school system more funding for new facilities and renovation to existing buildings.

During Monday night's workshop, Superintendent Mike Looney noted that while the Butler County School System receives 12 mills of property tax, in all actuality, the system nets approximately two mills total because a large amount goes to the state.

&#8220Two mills amounts to about $300,000 per year in local funding,” said Looney, who also said Butler County schools are at the bottom-third in funding in school systems statewide.

A few hundred thousand dollars of local contribution is a ridiculously low amount of money going into our school system. It is apparent to us that for Butler County schools to achieve greatness on both a state and national level, the citizens of this county are going to have to take an active role to ensure our local financial obligation is greatly increased.

Our children deserve nothing less.