I am writing this letter to express my concern regarding the proposed decrease in social work services at Jordan Small Middle School in Raymond. Jordan Small has a full-time social worker at this time. Next year the position will be decreased to 1.5 days per week for grades 6, 7 and 8. The social worker from Raymond Elementary will come to Jordan Small to work with five students.

This change concerns me because the social worker at Jordan Small has always been there for my daughter to assist her with her learning disabilities and middle school life. She has been there every day during school and even when school is out in the afternoons and vacation.

Knowing the social worker was there for my daughter gave her so much confidence. She knew she could go see the social worker anytime during her school day if she needed to. If it weren’t for the social worker being there everyday, my daughter would not have learned how to handle things on her own. There would have been some days that my daughter wouldn’t have had the courage to go to school if she had not had the social worker’s support.

If it weren’t for the social worker, my daughter would have gotten “lost” struggling to learn how to deal with her frustrations from her learning disability and pre-teen life. The social worker has shown my daughter how to handle the important feelings that all pre-teens go through. She also helped me as a parent to help my daughter with her frustrations.

Thanks to the social worker, my daughter has become a happy, proud, understanding young lady that has learned to work around the problems life has given her. What she has learned from the social worker, she will be able to carry into the real world as an adult and as a future parent.

The social worker is valuable for all pre-teens in their everyday, hard, emotional, growing, roller-coaster rides in middle school. The pre-teens and teenagers need to know there is someone like the social worker to support them and give them perspective to their problems.

My daughter wouldn’t be the person she is today without the Jordan Small School worker. She is a lifesaver and should be cloned!

Remember, President Bush has a program “No Child Left Behind.” Don’t let Raymond to be the first in the nation to leave their children behind!

Laura and Robert King

Raymond

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