To the editor:

The school board wants to raise the mill levy because they need more money to operate. Go back and read the May 17 Journal-World. According to that article, the school board in 2008 allocated $18 million in work for athletic stadiums and fields at both high schools. Because of an inequity between the two high schools’ sports facilities, a new press box will be added to the Lawrence High stadium. The school board created the inequity when they accepted the donation for improvements to Free State’s sports fields. Vanessa Sanburn was opposed to spending more because many of the elementary schools were in need of repair.

How can the school board spend tax dollars this way and ask for more? The economy is stagnant and more people are out of work. The paper is full of foreclosures and bankruptcies. Taxpayers are not running out of money, THEY ARE OUT OF MONEY.

Funding athletics over building repair shows where the school board’s priorities are. The emphasis needs to be on education, not sports. “No” to a mill levy increase by the school board.

Scott Henderson,

Lawrence