The Durant school board and the Durant School Superintendent are asking for more money again. The last time this happened we got a monstrosity in a high visibility, hard to access area that continues to have problems with the construction and design for $41,000,000.

Are you pleased with the way that went? Do you really want to give them $5,380,000 more to spend without knowing what it’s going to be spent for? I picked up a sample ballot and the part on the ballot about acquiring new school sites concerns me.

There are two school buildings here in town now that are not being utilized to their full capabilities. True, one of the buildings is very old and inefficient, but it is being utilized even though the board at the time said it was too expensive to keep open.

The other building, the old Middle School, is a very serviceable property. Folks, those are expensive buildings and property, and the school administration wants to spend more on other properties without oversight? It was stated before that the Middle School was 95 years old, and the High School was 50 years old.

That’s only half true. We do have to spend some on maintenance and upkeep but I believe it can be done with less money and more planning and oversight on the part of the administration. To sum up, the school bond for the new high school was passed on exaggerations and half truths from the then-school board and superintendent. Half truths are just that, half of the story.

That leaves the other half to be untrue. On March 5, I will vote no on Proposition No. 1.

Proposition No 2 is for purchasing transportation equipment and is probably money well spent. Safety for our children is a top priority and good safe equipment is necessary for their well being. It’s time we started reducing our tax burden instead of constantly increasing it, and this is a place to start.

John Cox

Durant