Some friends and I recently bought a place on the Brazos north of town. That section of the river is full of water skiers, swimmers, rope swings and fish.

But as you move downstream toward the city, some would have you believe that the Brazos changes from a recreational river into a wall — a wall of division.

Recently the Waco ISD administration presented to me and my fellow trustees options for the future of G.L. Wiley Middle School. The Texas Education Agency has told us for five consecutive years that Wiley is “unacceptable.” It’s right.

But Wiley isn’t unacceptable because of some arbitrary test standard set by TEA. (For years now, I’ve been telling anyone who would listen that there’s a helluva lot more to education than the TAKS.)

No, Wiley is unacceptable because there aren’t enough students to sustain a band program.

It’s unacceptable because the seventh grade football team had to suspend its season after two games for lack of enough young men to field a team.

It’s unacceptable because the young people on that campus aren’t getting the opportunities that we want to provide to every middle schooler in WISD.

It’s unacceptable because as a district, we haven’t challenged parents to step up to the plate and assume responsibility for their own children’s education.

One of the options presented to the school board is to consider moving students who live in East Waco from G.L. Wiley to G.W. Carver Academy and Cesar Chavez Middle School — the only two middle schools in Waco ISD that within the past 3 years have been “recognized” by TEA based on test scores.

The two schools have had extraordinary success on the athletic field and have award-winning music programs. They have strong parent involvement and parent education programs.

In the case of having some Wiley students attend Chavez, the only reason I’ve heard for not doing so is because Chavez is not in East Waco. Again, the river.

But the Brazos River is just a body of water. The San Antonio River is a major artery of commerce with river taxis and banks teaming with shops. No one in San Antonio tells shoppers on one side of the river that they can’t or shouldn’t visit stores on the other side.

In Austin, the Colorado River carries canoes and sail boats — downtown Austin on one bank, beautiful Zilker Park on the other. The community understands that it’s just a river — not a wall.

The Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce’s economic development plan and the City of Waco’s Visioning process have both recognized the necessity of moving forward from this point as one Waco.

The politics of division do not have a place in Waco any longer. Yet there are those who continue, for their own political purposes, to exploit division — to insist that the river is a wall. They want to use the river to define their own fiefdoms, where they can pretend to be king.

Those are the politics of separatism and division. The new spirit of Waco mandates that we see ourselves as one community.

We must no longer engage in a political dialogue of “you” and “them,” of east and west, but a dialogue of “us” and “we” that speaks of one community.

In fact, 43 percent of Wiley’s students don’t even live in East Waco. Several years ago, the district began to bus more than 100 students every year from the West Avenue Elementary School attendance zone into Wiley in an effort to keep the campus viable.

Only 130 students in East Waco attend Wiley Middle School. The chart here shows how our middle schools compare. In part because of its size, keeping G.L. Wiley open in the coming year will cost $9,435 per student. By comparison, Tennyson Middle School will receive only $5,381 per student.

Waco ISD is aware of efforts to increase economic development in East Waco.

We will soon begin construction of a $13.3 million elementary school in the community.

We recognize that the G.L. Wiley campus is one of our most unique and beautiful facilities. 

Were it to cease being a middle school, the Wiley campus would not be boarded up, shuttered, and abandoned.

This summer Waco ISD is beginning the process of developing a long-range plan and will be closely examining every aspect of the district’s programs, curriculum and facilities. 

The G.L. Wiley campus will be a part of those plans — whether it is as a magnet school, a professional development center, a conference center or some other use.

It is a new day in WISD. One goal of the district’s long-range planning process is to tear down the walls that have prevented us from reaching our full potential.

We should no longer allow a river to be one of those walls.

Pat Atkins, a Waco attorney, is a trustee for the Waco Independent School District.