I would like to share my perspective in regards to the recent editorial on the magnet -school debate as a Bend native who attended Kenwood Elementary for six years and had three children who attended Highland Magnet School.

The west side of Bend was not the affluent side of town when I grew up here, as the distribution of wealth was more even. Sure there were wealthy people here, but it was not as obvious as it is today. The growth was largely on the east side and we saw many of our friends’ families move there to new homes. By the late seventies, after the Awbrey Butte fire in 1968, development opened up and the west side began to grow. By the time I moved back to Bend after college and travels, the mills started to shut down in the 1980s, and the economic emphasis became tourism and recreation. With this change came people with money, and the west side flourished.

Traditionally, schools in Bend were neighborhood schools, on the east and west sides, ideal for walking and biking. To answer the need for more schools because of the growth, combined with changing demographics of old Bend neighborhoods, the neighborhood schools would be phased out. The trend was to build large schools that had learning pods, but also needed bus or car transportation in most cases to get there. Our children started at our neighborhood school, Thompson School. We support the idea of neighborhood schools and got involved in the debate about eliminating them, but it became clear that the direction school construction was going was toward the mega schools. The three west-side neighborhood schools, Kenwood, Thompson and Kingston, would be used for another purpose. Magnet schools serve to provide a choice of educational approaches and allow children from all over the city to attend. Three magnet schools were already established and housed in other places — Amity Creek at the school district administration building, Highland/Storyline at Buckingham and Westside Village at Kenwood School — and were ready to grow. That’s when the three magnet schools found their current locations.

Since then, there have been several other magnet schools housed in east-side locations. There is no dispute that the west side is affluent for many, but the placement of these schools on the west side was by default, not because the west side is necessarily affluent. The school buildings were available for the programs and were placed there.

I empathize with the frustrations to gain access to these popular programs. It is limited with the lottery process and family preference and evolved to include more neighborhood students for their locations, which supports the need for neighborhood schools.

We feel fortunate for our family to have gotten in on the early days at Highland because we cherish those days. Should we have more magnet schools? Should we consider bringing back smaller-sized neighborhood schools?

However, the issue of perceived west -side/east -side disparity, when it comes to magnet schools, only feeds into the divide our school district is experiencing currently. I encourage all residents to try to understand the historical perspective of all issues and engage in creating positive change for our children and community.

Do you have a point you’d like to make or an issue you feel strongly about? Submit a letter to the editor or a guest column.