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What have North Country schools done to save money?

Posted 1/10/14

To the Editor: In response to “If Potsdam, Canton Schools Merge, What Happens to Buildings, Staff, Students, Programs and Taxes?,” let’s see, each school has already received $25,000 each with …

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What have North Country schools done to save money?

Posted

To the Editor:

In response to “If Potsdam, Canton Schools Merge, What Happens to Buildings, Staff, Students, Programs and Taxes?,” let’s see, each school has already received $25,000 each with a “political” promise of $25,000 more after the mergers are “done.”

That’s a total of $100,000 when it’s all over with, to study whether merger is right to do. That sounds terribly expensive to me; don’t you think it is?

Where is that $100,000 going to come from? I know; more taxes! The state is not paying for it, we are.

If combining two schools into one district is a great deal, why is $100,000 needed to study it? It’s going to leave both buildings in use according to what I read; that’s dismally small savings when you think about it; two sets of buses, heating costs, maintenance costs; where’s the big saving in that?

They are certainly planning to completely close one of the schools once the mergers and combining are put in place, and regardless of whether two or one set of school building exists, guess who will pick up the lowered taxes each building will pay? Us, the taxpayer, that’s who!

There is as yet a huge void in the media about what those schools can or have done to cut costs. What are those actions? What else can be cut? How my money must be cut, at each school? I haven’t heard anyone say they’re on austerity budgets yet. Are they?

And what about all the school activities that are not related to acquiring a diploma? Let’s get real; lets get pro-active at all our schools. What things are the schools still paying for that are not related to a diploma?

And all the buses and other plant equipment that will no longer be needed, what will happen to those? Will they just sit there and rot/rust away? Or be sold for pennies on the pound?

It’s not making sense to merge schools when the recommendations come from fat-cats that charge these exorbitant rates for “studies” and all the rest of their “stuff.” If merger is a good idea, the schools would be doing it already.

It can be done. And it needs to be done. More work is needed, maybe even longer days, who knows?

Tom Rivet

Heuvelton