School bond is 'outrageous'

Dear editor:

I was disappointed to see that the school board is adopting the all-or-nothing approach to the school bond.

With our community in need of so many improvements, for example- locally the doctors tell us we need a new hospital and the fire chief tells us that our roads need to be improved to carry the fire trucks, our governor tells us we need more pay for our teachers and our highways need to be replaced and upgraded, and our federal government tells us we need more and better help for veterans and that our clean water and air programs need more if we are to have safe air and drinking water, it would seem a little selfish to insist on so much in a school bond.

With many of our citizens living on fixed incomes, the value of their dollar is falling, and the cost to heat their homes going out of sight an all-or-nothing school bond is even more than selfish -- it is mean.

Could we do with a little less in this Taj Mahal school bond? If we look at the gym we see one of the big issues is holding "comfortable" gradation once a year. I suggest to you that the group of people that attend the most graduations are the school board members, the students attend one or two, the parents may attend around three, the teachers maybe ten (with the low pay and high turnover this number may be high) and the school board members attend graduation almost forever.

It is outrageous that someone should go without heat, food, or lose their home so the school board members can be "comfortable" for graduation. If we were to ask the students if they would want a new gym if it would put their grandparents out of their home they could make the right choice. The question is can we?

Leonard Hutterman