To the editor:

I am responding to recent letters in the J-W about the merits of expanding Lawrence Alternative High School. I want all readers to understand (especially the young adults who have written in) that no one opposes expanding and improving services for LAHS.

However, it is too bitter a pill to swallow that while this bond requests funding for LAHS, it also asks to close down small elementaries which are functioning successfully at full capacity as single-section schools. It asks taxpayers to shoulder the burden for rebuilding poorly designed schools, and takes away everything important to central and east Lawrence residents.

I hope everyone understands that the school board , the USD 497 administration and its corporate consultants have successfully pitted (once again) schools, children and their parents against each other. Unfortunately for them, they have done so once too often!

I encourage everyone (including the so-called silent majority) to examine this bond and its inherent agenda, within historical context, city planning and zoning context and/or the context of classroom performance. The corporate agencies who are recommending gross structural changes in USD 497 buildings, benefit directly by doing so. They have grossly overspent their consulting budget already. Does anyone honestly think the same thing won’t happen to this bond?

I am sorry to see one ignorant individual cause such a reaction about the merits of LAHS. I am also sorry to see USD 497 cause such great bitterness and divisiveness in our community, especially when it is entirely unnecessary.

Deborah Snyder,

Lawrence