To the editor:

Last week at a Plymouth Church forum for candidates, school board President Scott Morgan stated it would have been easy to “cherry pick” and come up with a smaller bond proposal that would have passed easily. Maybe one that included a new South Junior High School and some much-needed improvements at Lawrence High School, along with some modest additions to elementary schools. A $30 million package perhaps, about half the size of the bond proposal the board has put forward.

It probably would have passed easily, in that it addressed core district needs, without getting into the school closing battle. It might even have reserved $500,000 each for New York and East Heights, to provide better facilities.

But no, the board wanted a bigger bite from the apple. It decided to impose on our community a long-term plan that an out-of-town architectural firm helped devise. And that firm, which has no stake in our community’s future, would profit only half as much from a $30 million bond as opposed to one amounting to $59 million.

We can still have that smaller, more efficient bond proposal. Just vote on April 1 and ask the board, including Scott Morgan, if he is re-elected, to come back with a more modest and less divisive proposal. Morgan was right about one thing: It will be “easy” to pass that one.

John Richardson,

Lawrence