The subject of the bond has been a hot topic of debate, among students, staff, and other adults. Many different views on the bond have been passed around, and not many know which side to take. After all, it’s been three years, and they still have not managed to pass the bond, so is it even worth worrying about anymore?
A good portion of people are against the bond, and its failure is evidence enough. However, different groups have claimed different reasons for the bond not passing. It appears a good portion of individuals who support the bond blame the failure on the community, claiming that they are just trying to avoid raising taxes. However, this isn’t the case for some.
Bill Powers, a 55-year-old game store owner in the town of McPherson, Kansas, has stated his reasoning for being against the bond. According to him, the members of the school board are not being transparent with the current school budget. Upon inspection of such, one can see that a good portion of funds are within the category of “other.” However, there is no explanation for what “other” means in this case.
“If they could just explain where the money is going,” Powers states, “even if it’s just a note saying ‘new tires for bus’ then maybe there would be more supporters.”
There are a few others against the bond that say something similar. They do not explain where the money is going, and a good look at the state of the building will confirm that it’s definitely not going towards maintenance.
“School budget mostly goes to teacher salaries followed by non-certified salaries,” claims Dan Lichty, one of the members on the board of education. The budget reports prove otherwise, but no one would ever object to the word of an official, right?
Lichty also believes in the claim that people are against the bond because of the tax involved, saying “they think only of themselves and not the good of the community.” Whether or not this claim is true depends on the individual. There surely are a few out there who oppose it for tax reasons.
The school is not being transparent about where the budget is going, and the superintendent’s recent raise is drawing some more attention to this problem. Budget reports have shown that the school’s current budget for the 2023-24 school year is about $63 million. This is more money than anyone in this town will ever see in their entire lives, and with that amount in mind, it’s still almost completely unknown as to where it’s all going.
When asking Powers about this, he states that, with that kind of money, the school could afford over 100 industrial air conditioning systems for the high school alone. Keeping this in mind, it may be worthy to point out that the air conditioning in the high school still does not work despite the fact that they had the money to replace it whenever.
So, in the end, perhaps the community should take a second and ask themselves, where is the money going if not towards the school? If they have the money to maintain and fix up the current building, why aren’t they? If most of the budget is going towards the teachers’ salaries, then why are many of them complaining about their pay? Something seems to be amiss here, and it’s only a matter of time before the community uncovers what’s at play behind the scenes.
