The report further went on

to explain that both the plans and the funding for the Sandy Creek High

School auditorium were in place and that that project was essentially

ready to go.

Then the report continued thus:

[Board members] Marion Key and Greg Powers "insisted though, that

it wouldn't be right to proceed with the Sandy Creek auditorium when the

board 'promised' the McIntosh community it would be next on the list of

priorities." Apparently, the whole board agreed with that.

I don't agree with that, and

I believe that anyone who has his heart in the right place and his head

screwed on right wouldn't agree either.

What the board essentially

decided to do was to punish the Sandy Creek students by delaying the construction

of their long overdue auditorium by one year for the sake of politics.

The board members have the

money. They have the plans. They are ready to go. But instead of loving

children, they love politics. Hundreds of children will be deprived of

the use of an auditorium for one full year because of the insensitivity

of our school board.

I doubt there is a single person

who is member of that so-called McIntosh community who wishes to visit

unnecessary delay or hardship on the Sandy Creek students. The McIntosh

people can understand the situation.

The alleged "promise"

of the board is bogus. In its discussion the board referred to old SPLOST

promises when a thoroughly discredited and repudiated board was making

poor decisions and trying to bribe every school with some project. That

promise is neither legally nor morally binding. Citizens with their heart

in the right place can understand that readily.

What troubles me the most in

all of this is that the school superintendent is not leading the board

for the students. If he would only steer the board in the right direction,

the board might avoid making dumb mistakes like this.

Let me explain, by the way,

that I have no children or relatives in the Fayette school system. I come

to the defense of the Sandy Creek students because they, like all our

students in Fayette County, deserve better from the adults who control

their fate.

I am thoroughly ashamed of

a school board who would reason the way it was reported in The Citizen.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: we need to elect to our

school board people who love children, not people who love politics.

If it's allowed to stand, the

decision to let our Sandy Creek students twist in the wind one more year

will be a reflection of the moral bankruptcy of our school board.

Claude Y. Paquin

Fayetteville

[email protected]