From Jan Lefevre

Monroe

To the Editor:

While the citizens recognize the need for a new high school because of poor maintenance of current high school, they feel the school should be built on land the district already owns. The district cannot afford to buy land! The school board wants to build a much larger school and sports field for a declining enrollment. This results in a related loss of State and Federal funds based on students counts. 

National student to teacher ratio is 15 to 1. Monroe student to teacher ratio is 13 to 1. Studies indicate when a District hits a 10 to 1 ratio, it becomes extremely costly to operate and is unsustainable. When property tax over 10% is passed on to the public, there is a flight of students from that district. 

Monroe School District must look for the best use of declining funds to build a high school. We must use “existing land” to build the high school. Monroe cannot afford to spend more money. The school board assured us the property taxes would be much lower than the outrageous taxes of 10 to 15 times more that arrived on our tax bills. This is devastating to families, landlords, renters, business owners and senior citizens.

Please do your own research! It’s your job to stay informed!