Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 4 · column 3 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
To the editor:
According to a recent front page news story in your paper, headlined “School Board Readies Outlay Case,” the chairman of our School Board stated, ‘To sell this project (the $1.43 million high school expansion project) we’ve got to have documented proof!”
The chairman then listed some items of factual information which must be .provided.to the supervisors arid to the tax-paying; public to enlfet their support for the expansion project, such as high school enrollment, census data, current accreditation standards, course offerings, and State mandates.
“We have got to be prepared with these answers,” she stated correctly. In fact, it would have been more correct to have had these answers before spending county money for architect’s fees and applying for a Literary Fund Loan. Her fellow board members noted (also correctly) that spiralling tax rates and a declining student enrollment will be at issue but nevertheless supported a PR campaign to “sell” the new basketball superdome building project.
At the same meeting a School Board member pointed out that high school expansion plans had been side-tracked for 10 years but did not give the reasons why. Among these were: a constantly declining school population in this county, the inability or unwillingness of the School Board to provide and publish data to justify building expansion (only a generalized cry for “quality education” which no one could define precisely), the temporary suspension of Literary Fund Loans under Governor Robb, and the inclusion in aborted plans of such items as a greenhouse which were considered by both supervisors and the public as frivolous and ridiculous in this county. (Does a new 750-seat basketball gymnasium fall into this category?) While on the School Board I
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