Board member

To the Editor:

To: Clay Community School Board: Brian Atkinson, Board President, Dottie King, Board Vice President, Jennifer Kaelber, Board Secretary, Ted Jackson, Board Member, Tina Heffner, Board Member, Terry Barr, Board Member.

Re: Elementary School Building Program.

The current 2008 budget for the Clay Community School Corporation is approximately $43 million and with the corporation having about 5,000 students, the cost of educating a student in our corporation is about $8,000 a year. This $8,000 per student per year is relatively high compared to other Indiana school corporations.

The Bond Issue for the elementary school project is in the range of $26 million, which will have an annual payment of approximately $4 million. This additional expense will add $800 per student yearly to an already comparatively high annual cost per student.

The annual cost per student will increase to $8,800.

With the current status of our school, state and national companies, the ability of our taxpayers to pay this additional amount is questionable. The need for the elementary school project is in no way an emergency in our corporation. We have many more important areas, which should be addressed at this time.

Such areas are strengthening the Nova Net Programs in our high schools, hiring more teachers to reduce the class size in the lower elementary grades, etc.

Our school board is responsible for seeing that our schools do not become such a financial burden for our citizens that we cannot make necessary educational improvements.

I sincerely believe that this elementary school project should be stopped since the financial burden for our taxpayers will be $4 million yearly for the duration of the bonds. (Nine-plus years to retire the bonds).

Forrest R. Buell,

Clay City