Why the Signs?

From Christian Faulconer:

Freedom Academy is a great school and those of us who live in the Rivergrove neighborhood where it is located consider the school one of our neighbors. Recently our neighborhood was made aware of plans to proceed toward building a high school on the Freedom Academy site. This is something that has been previously discussed and we believe it had been addressed with plans to build elsewhere. Because we feel like Freedom Academy is not being a good neighbor, we have organized to do what we can to make sure that we as affected neighbors are heard by the school administration. 

I think it is important that we are clear about the following points: 

1. As a neighborhood, we are supportive of Freedom Academy.

2. We have previously conceded that we would support the school and its high school expansion plans if Freedom Academy agreed to build OFF SITE. There have been several references to our need to compromise and we feel we have done so, not only in supporting Freedom Academy's off-site expansion, but in our patience with ongoing concerns about traffic, litter, and property damage.

3. We have kept our end of the agreement and have been good neighbors despite the fact that we feel that the school has shown little concern for its impact on us and our property.

4. We will do everything we can to ensure that Freedom Academy keeps its end of the agreement and expands elsewhere. This includes being supportive of the school as it builds a high school at another location. We want to be advocates for the school and we are willing to do that if Freedom Academy keeps its end of the agreement.

5. We want to resolve this the way good neighbors do -- through open communication and by working together. However, we are ready and willing to pursue every avenue legally available to us to ensure that Freedom Academy does not expand at the current site.

In an effort to make ourselves heard, we have written letters to the school governing board, school administrators, as well as city and state leaders. We also printed signs so that it is clear that we do not support on-site expansion. We have done what responsible, organized citizens do in a democratic republic to express themselves. Today we received a message expressing frustration and concern that our signs have scared some of the school's children. Scaring children was not our plan and we hope that our peaceful assertion of our right to free speech can be used as a teaching opportunity. We do not expect everyone to agree with us, but we do expect everyone to honor our right to express ourselves responsibly as we believe we have and we will honor the rights of others to do the same. 

We are in the process of organizing a meeting where we will invite stakeholders from the school (administration and parents) and the neighborhood as well as some of our city and state leaders. We will invite everyone to come and express their opinion respectfully. We believe that the system that we have in this country is a beautiful thing. It allows us to have these types of discussions, disagree strongly, and still leave as friends. If you find anything we have done offensive, we apologize for the offense and we will strive to do better. As I have stated above and in more than one message to the school administration, we want to resolve this the way good neighbors do -- through open communication and by working together. 

Christian