To the Editor,

First it was a suggestion. Now it’s a referendum on the March ballot. Sumner County School Board Chairman Don Long initiated a $25 Wheel Tax to help fund the schools of Sumner County. There is no indication as to how this money will be used and judging from the expenditures that this board has chosen in the last few years, I’m going to have to vote no.

Long claims it will generate $3 million. I’m all about funding education in this county but it seems the recipients of current monies are limited. The board began several years ago by insisting that the then Knox Doss Middle school be renamed Station Camp Middle (to develop a sense of community) with the appropriate signs and color changes to the tune of $75,000. Then after the tornado that damaged the athletic field at Station Camp High School repairs there became a priority. The latest proposal is to build 16 new classrooms and expand the cafeteria at Station Camp High School.

The reason, per the board, is that SCHS now has six portables. (Gallatin High School has eight portables and teachers that have no classroom but rove throughout the day). The cost of this addition/expansion is $2,495,509 and has been awarded to Kaatz, Binkley, Jones & Morris Architects, Inc. (the only “gold contributor” to the TN School Board Association) even though, of the other eight bids, only one was higher ($2,571,826 from Curtis Builders).

Why is this relevant thorn in my side? Chairman Long’s and Co-Chairman Danny Hale’s children go to Station Camp High School. A couple of years ago a Nashville church group volunteered time and materials to clean up and paint Gene Brown Elementary. Where was the School Board then? Until there is some guarantee that these monies are spread evenly among the schools of this county, I’ll be voting no in March.

Ann Winston

Hendersonville, Tenn.