Last week, seven kiddos from McGuffey Montessori school visited the Oxford Municipal Building. During their tour, City of Oxford employees got to learn a little bit more about the next generation, including what improvements they would make to our town if they sat on our City Council.
Upon arrival, Assistant City Manager Jessica Greene took the students to our large conference room. There they learned the basics of how cities work before continuing with a tour of the building, meeting staff members from the Service Department, Utilities, Community Development, and the Fire Department. They got to see a map that showed the water system beneath a new building being constructed, learn about trash and the wastewater system, and just one or two ways that the city works to keep its residents safe using building permits and inspections.
The kiddos were asked a lot of hard-hitting questions and even when they weren’t quite sure of the answer, they were energetic in their attempts to discover it!
After the tour concluded, the kids were informed of an urgent message from our City Council! An important decision regarding improvements to a city park needed to be made but our Councilors were on a break and couldn’t be there - could the seven kiddos step in and vote?
They quickly rose to the occasion, several shouting, “I’m a city councilor!” to their field trip chaperone but one little girl pulled Jessica aside to make sure this was just for pretend. For the purposes of this report, yes it was just for pretend.
A meeting was commenced at the Oxford Courthouse. Our newly formed Kinder-City Council were polite and respectful as they took their seats. One little girl, after sitting in the luxurious Mayor’s seat and asking why that seat was so different, quickly moved seats when she received the answer, proclaiming, “I don’t wanna be in charge.” Ah, to know yourself at the age of five is an incredible thing…
The debate of the day ended up being a topic near and dear to the student’s heart - whether to build a new dog park, complete with a splash pad or to improve a playground with slides that go ‘way’ higher than our slides currently go.
They asked thoughtful questions and seemed very engaged with the topic. After much debate (and several City Councilors wishing to vote yes for both sides), a vote was finally reached. 5 - 2 in favor of an improved playground. It appears that while dogs are cute and we do care about them, very much, we just can’t resist the adrenaline rush of epic slides.
The kiddos returned to school promptly after the meeting ended or as one student declared, “Meeting ejected!” We can only hope to bring the same amount of passion and excitement that these visitors brought to us, to all of our upcoming meetings!
Original source can be found here.
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