Dear Editor,
Candor School District residents get to decide on Wednesday whether we want to go another $19.5 million dollars into debt. The District continues to tout the talking point that this $21.5 Million capital project will have “no impact on local taxes.”
Why? Because they rely on State Aid and have already taken over $2 million of your tax dollars and squirreled them away to help pay for this overly generous project. State Aid is still your money! It defies logic to continue to insist that a project of this magnitude makes economic sense in a community that decreases in student population from year to year. At the current level of enrollment, this is an expenditure of approximately $26,875 per student.
Consider only two parts of this project: a major selling point is said to be the purchase of an existing pole barn. The usable life of a pole barn versus a steel building is 20 to 40 years less (Google lifespan of pole barns). Add that the building is already 14 years old, this project “saves the District over $3.5 Million,” but we’ll end up with a building with a lifespan that is 34-54 years less than a new building.
Are we being led to be penny wise and pound foolish? The Information Technology portion of this program focuses on purchasing iPads and plasma TV’s. Who do you think is going to pay for the replacement of these devices four years from now? You are, yet this project will have “no impact on local taxes.”
What is lacking in the very short public discussion that precedes this vote is any explanation of why this particular set of individual projects are the best and most cost effective alternatives. In fact, alternatives (if they were considered at all) have not been widely publicized.
This smacks of a lack of transparency on the part of District officials, and is more akin to a “free” shopping spree on someone else’s dime – except it IS our dime! Officials have been planning for this since 2007, according to information made public at the informational meeting on Oct. 22. Why have most voters gotten less than three weeks to consider this project?
Send the school board back to plan a project with “must have” components that is in keeping with community economics; one that is not so filled with “want to have” items. I urge you to vote “NO” on Nov. 5.
Sincerely,
Steve Barrows
Candor, N.Y.
