My life has changed a lot since I worked on the Measure C committee, the school bond passed in 1999, which helped transform Truckee Elementary and built Alder Creek Middle School. I was married then and living comfortably in a large home, without much concern over monthly budgets and bills. My twins were attending the “old middle school” and my youngest was only three.

Now the twins are in college, I have a 7th grader at Alder Creek, and I’m a single parent conscious of each dollar I spend.

My twins went through the system ahead of every improvement Measure C brought. And they did fine. I remember justifying their sub-standard, overcrowded, unsafe and uninspiring facilities by telling myself that the combination of great kids, excellent teachers and involved parents could overcome most anything. I still believe that.

But every time I took Charlie to the improved Truckee elementary, and now when I go to beautiful Alder Creek, a nationally recognized “Sustainable Design Merit Award” winning school, I feel great inside. I know firsthand how inspiring a great facility can be for students, teachers and parents.

Frank Lloyd Wright said that “a school should be a thought-built good time place for happy children – with some light overhead, the school building should regard children as a garden in the sun.”

I really have to prioritize when it comes to spending money these days. But I don’t have any problem investing 50 dollars a year — the equivalent of one month of cable TV — to help create more “thought built, good time places for happy children” and for the community I hold so dear. I’m voting yes on Measure U.