To the editor:

Ten “questionable actions” of the current 497 school administration that are cause for concern:

1. Closing schools, and then complaining about overcrowding.

2. Failing to explain why elementary school enrollment has fallen for the last 10 years while Lawrence is growing.

3. Spending over $500,000 on windows and playground equipment on Cordley, a two-story 100-year-old building, full of lead paint, inadequate parking, poor access, needing more capital repair than any other building and, in a neighborhood with fewer children than Centennial.

4. Biology, though still available, has been removed as a graduation requirement in order to raise the grade and graduation rate.

5. Guarantee paying the consulting firm (DLR Group) 10 percent of the cost of everything built, which makes all projects more expensive.

6. Lack of long-range planning and sharing a vision for school placement.

7. Wanting to spend $24 million to rebuild South Junior High in an area where no new homes can be built (and with falling enrollment).

8. Low teacher morale, not all of which is salary-based.

9. Failure to explain why building more schools is less than busing to unused buildings.

10. Failure to work with the city for a plan to stabilize single-family neighborhoods, the decline of which is the root cause of declining enrollment.

With this record, can you trust this administration to (wisely) spend $53 million of your tax dollars?

Bob Blank,

Lawrence