Throughout the years I've served on the Amador County Unified School District Board Of Trustees and been in public education, I and many others have often been frustrated by the lack of funding for state-of-the-art school facilities for the children of Amador County and Sutter Creek. In my view, providing top-notch schools helps our kids reach their potential and helps preserve our quality of life here in the Mother Lode.

Today, Sutter Creek children attend two antiquated schools. Many parents are forced to drive all the way to Ione to drop their children off at the junior high school. Due to the rising cost of land and the small size of our school district budget, we have been unable to marshal the funds for school property.

The Gold Rush Ranch project is a rare opportunity for Sutter Creek and the school district to build a high quality school our children need and deserve. When Gold Rush Ranch was first conceived many years ago, its project sponsors sought me out and were very clear about their commitment to improve Amador County's schools, even if that meant going far above and beyond their legal requirements. To their credit, the Gold Rush Ranch project sponsors listened to our needs - and then we rolled up our sleeves and got to work. After years of collaboration, the result is a project designed to meet the academic needs of our kids with the following unprecedented contributions:

- The proposed donation from the Gold Rush project sponsors of a 17-acre school site worth millions of dollars and perfect for a new K-8 school

- New funding to the school district, including $10 million in new fees and $6 million in annual revenues

- Possible donation of a site for a new public library

Normally, the school district would have to use its scarce taxpayer dollars to purchase a 17-acre school site. This proposed donation from Gold Rush Ranch means our district can better use your tax dollars for construction of a state-recommended K-8 school that will reduce the need for parents to shuttle their children to multiple schools. Gold Rush's donation is all the more critical now that it is clear that the state of California will not be able to help us fund new school construction due to its own budget problems.

In the long run, the investment that Gold Rush Ranch is willing to make in creating high quality local schools will help sustain the vitality of our community and the Mother Lode's quality of life.

Gold Rush Ranch has applied the same kind of thoughtful planning to the rest of the project as they exhibited with schools.

The project will protect and preserve the most important scenic and ecologically sensitive areas as well as 300 acres of open space. All area residents will have new recreation options that include public tennis courts, a new 5-mile hiking and bicycling network, and a new championship public golf course, which will serve as the home of the Amador High School golf team. Gold Rush Ranch is also committed to protecting the public by donating lands for new fire and police stations.

As our economy faces some of the biggest challenges since the Great Depression, we should embrace the sizable investments that Gold Rush Ranch is willing to make in our community. The project will bring new employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to future generations, while instituting design standards to protect historic Victorian and Craftsman architecture that represent our past.

If there is going to be growth, then it should be done in a careful, sensitive and thoughtful manner - just the way Gold Rush Ranch has done over the last eight years. Through its deeds, Gold Rush Ranch project sponsors have already proven they have the best interests of our children and our community at heart.

We are blessed that Gold Rush Ranch is willing to step up and make such a serious commitment and I am proud to support this sensible, quality plan that embodies a world of new opportunities for our next generation of students.

Mary Walser is president of the Amador County Unified School District Board and is a former high school principal of Amador High School. She resides in Sutter Creek.