To the editor:

USD 497 is again fixated on a soda pop contract to raise additional funds for the district. How can a district that proposes a $96 million budget be so inept in financial management that it needs to scrounge around for a piddly $50,000 (the figure quoted in the Journal-World on Aug. 15 as income for the previous year in commissions from sale of soda)?

The superintendent and the school board members have yet to disclose publicly in the news the source of all income to the district, the expenses and salaries associated with the district. Why should the taxpayers have reason to believe that USD 497 needs money?

It is a district bloated with administrators, duplicate programs (alternative high school with a budget 20 times the receipt of soda pop commissions).

Question: What is the connection of DLR Group with the school district at the present time and how much money has been paid to the firm?

This district is the second-largest employer in Lawrence (reported by the Journal-World in articles) and yet it pays nothing into the tax base but consumes almost 50 percent of local property taxes.

How much is owed on bonds and interest? Are the taxpayers paying on buildings and improvements that are no longer needed or fixtures that have been hauled to the landfill?

Why isn’t a monthly report of all expenses and account balances available at the public library?

David Holroyd,

Lawrence