Dear Cody,

I have been reading in your paper where Mrs. Auton and Dr. James are going head to head over the issues she has with the budget. I was at the meeting when the budget was so hastily approved. I have a few questions now of my own that I feel were not adequately answered in Mr. James, PhD's response in the June 16th Ledger.

It seems to me that when controversy arises we get smoke and mirrors that divert attention until the real smoke settles.

James makes it sound as if the final draft of the 2006-07 budget was thoroughly discussed by committees and the full board. The final draft of the budget was never publicly discussed in committee or by the full board.

Excuses were made for not having budget committee meetings on the budget and for not delaying the final (and only) reading of the budget. I know of no other elected body, public or private, that does not have numerous budget committee meetings and full board discussions before approving a budget. There is no acceptable excuse for not having budget committee hearings.

The average class size and student-teacher ratios sound great if your child isn't affected, but too bad if you have a child in one of those first grade classes with 30 or more students. Averages don't matter when you are the teacher trying to help all those children, or if your child is on the high end of those averages. Let's just confuse people who can't see through the #@%$&*.

How close are we to having full time nurses at each school as requested year after year? How did Mr. James, PhD, justify not increasing SASI clerk days and pay as requested by all schools? Oh, yeah, he didn't bother. But we're too dumb to notice that. That would have cost $50,000 to implement district wide, according to the administration's own estimate. How much was paid in administrator increases again? About one hundred thousand dollars. The district couldn't afford the clerk increase, why?

If the state mandates that buses be parked in centralized locations, lighted and fenced...uh, where will that be? And why has that mandate not been respected before?

Has anyone noticed that even the people who asked to see the budget were not provided a copy? Not even the media members. If you don't need to hide, you don't hide.

The new technology coaches appear to be getting some beefy salaries. Who are they related to? What is the "one opinion" that the superintendent speaks of?

Where do E rate, grants, salary and any other reimbursements show up in the budget? What is spent in legal costs? How is that paid? Where is that in the budget?

Darn those devilish principals for not providing our teachers with supply money. Why are the principals always being blamed for this? If things were going great who would be getting credit for that? Not the principals, I'm sure! Even if there has been a decline in assessed values since 2003, there is still almost two million dollars more over last year. That's enough to remedy the deficit. Where's the confusion? This is where we get a little more smoke. Just make us dizzy we won't understand.

Could increases in utility costs be explained by looking at the number of people who carry school district mobile telephones? Let's take a look. Did Mr. James, PhD forget about his contingency increase to $30,750 and the increase in board contingency to over $164,000? No explanation? Where was the superintendent's explanation for why newly hired employees, who haven't spent a day on the job yet, were given increases?

Ms. Greene wants complete and concise information reported to the public. Really? Let's do take a look! Be concise and complete about purchased services and materials from consultants, insurance companies, printer companies, book suppliers, catering services, technology service providers, security companies, construction services, employee "training", staff development, etc. Will you please get us complete, concise information? Regardless of whether or not the superintendent can explain away the answers to my questions, why was a 58 million dollar budget not important enough to meet about?

Amanda A. Knowles