Ellen Kenny lives in Concord.

There have been several letters and articles in these pages recently on the proposed monetary cost of the new middle school, currently slated to be built in the woods in East Concord. I would like to speak here today about a different cost that is getting less press.

I think we can all agree that two of the most important resources that any community has — our treasure, if you will — are our children and our environment: our air, water and woodlands. The parcel of woodland under discussion is already owned by the school district, and in an ideal world, that makes it seem like an easy fit for locating a new school.

As school board members have reminded us, access to green space is a value that we want to be able to share with these future middle school students. This chunk of forest land provides a blank slate for the architects to work with and create their vision of an ideal school.

However, the acres of trees that will be uprooted and bulldozed to build a new school are part of a system of contiguous woodlands that provide, among other things, habitat for migratory songbirds and the wildlife we value. In addition, trees reduce carbon by sequestering it in new growth throughout the lifespan of the tree. As many of the elementary school students who have had the benefit of being educated in our city’s schools can tell you, trees clean the air. They also cool the air, and their root systems absorb the water from the increasingly powerful rain storms that we’re experiencing.

Anyone who is paying attention at all to news of our world’s climate situation knows that the world we’re living in now is a very different one than that in which we, the decision-makers, had the privilege of growing up. The NH.gov website states that “the transportation sector generates the largest share of greenhouse gas emissions” in our state. As many of us have pointed out and the board itself has acknowledged, a middle school in East Concord will not be walkable for most students. Is building a new school in a location to which most students will require transportation a wise decision to make? Is it ethical to eradicate a parcel of our limited woodlands for a new school building, when we in fact already have a cleared site and existing infrastructure for a middle school? And can we say in all honesty that we’re doing what is best for our children today and in future generations by doing so?

I’ve been an educator in Concord for two decades. Like my elementary school colleagues, I’ve taught children about the critical importance of caring for our environment and conserving our limited natural resources, and find that these are issues about which children also care, passionately. I feel deeply the disconnect between our words and what our deeds will be, unless the school board reconsiders its decision and shows the forward-thinking leadership required to practice what we as parents, educators, and responsible stewards of our city’s resources, preach.