Sometimes, those walls need paint; other times, they need a good demolishing. That's what they've done at Ranburne High in Cleburne County, where Monday students will christen a new $7 million building on the first day of the coming school year.
Everything about the Ranburne High story, as told in Wednesday's Star by reporter Michael A. Bell, is a tale worth repeating. The Ranburne community is hardly among the wealthiest areas of northeast Alabama; its everyday struggles are like those of many other small, Southern locales. Money's tight, year after year.
But in this era of bailouts and steep fiscal concerns, the Cleburne County 1-cent sales tax initiative that paid for the new Ranburne High is an example of taxpayer money well spent. Ranburne High needed a new building. That community's students deserved something better than they had.
Come Monday, they'll have it. Call it another example of a school energized, rejuvenated, ready to learn.
