On Veterans Day, I drove past Ella White School and noticed that its American flag was now located at the back of the school at what seems to be the new school entrance. This was the first time that I had been behind the school since the clean up of the months’ long construction had taken place and I was stunned to see that almost the entire playground area had been paved over into a parking lot. The students, who were at lunch recess, were packed into the old corner ball field. Gone was the former playground equipment. Also gone is its community nature center, bulldozed and obliterated this past summer. It left me wondering for whom were these changes made? Clearly not with the students in mind.

SUZANNE KELLY,

Alpena