Your Letters for April 25, 2025
Be more transparent in the future
The people of St. Joseph and especially South St. Joseph were presented with a no-win scenario. Our school district administration and school board were never forthcoming on an exact location of the proposed new location. They would not even commit to a ZIP code! For all we knew, it would be south of Highway 36. That takes in a huge amount of area.
This school district has not been transparent at all. First, we voters passed a tax increase for administrators, teachers, counselors, directors and coaches recently. That shows that we do support tax increases for our schools. But this recent bond issue was so vague that all “thinking” voters could not support it.
First, the St. Joseph School District chose a very bad time to put this bond issue before the public, especially a $150 to 155 million one. Our present economic climate is in crisis mode. Every economist in the U.S. is stating that the average American family will spend $3,500 more this year compared to 2024.
Overall, we are not a wealthy community!
Do we the people work for our school district or do they work for us? I know what the answer should be. Voters have made it abundantly clear they want three public high school to serve their area of this city. We are being ignored and we should be furious.
I personally and my many friends would have voted “yes” for updating our current high schools and a more reasonable $50 to 75 million bond issue.
Our district administration now states that Benton will no longer be a high school, but a middle school! What? Central High and Lafayette High are only 2.2 miles apart. Those two high schools serve the same area of town. Look for yourself to see how far Benton is from those two schools.
Also, school districts all over the U.S. agree that the larger the school population is for students, the more likely there will be that discipline and school violence will increase. That is a fact!
Can we please use some common sense? Please, let our teachers have smaller student numbers per instructor. Our students will receive more individual attention. That is a major plus! Give our students a better chance to learn as much as possible to live in the 21st century.
I say to the SJSD, once again, be more specific and transparent in our future. You can make this work. Bless you all for caring to serve on our board. But please, look at all the facets of serving our teenage students.
John Hoffman
St. Joseph
Educating the Board of Education
The people of St. Joseph have sent two messages to the St. Joseph Board of Education. They do not like your idea of two schools. They do not like your idea of $300 million bonds two new schools and their kids bussed all over the city to be educated. There is an old saying that if you continue the same old thing, you should not expect a different result. It would seem that some board members have not or do not accept this saying.
The SJSB is now wanting to float an $80 million tax-free bond to update a high school, i.e. Benton, so they can turn it into a middle school. Don’t be misled by tax free. It will not raise your taxes, but kids at a chosen school will be bussed all over the city at a major cost.
Perhaps the school board might consider rotating a teacher to the smaller classes or, like Hillyard students, let kids attend other schools since the board is saying the classes are so small, only a few students will have to travel.
Let’s review the talking points of the SJSB. One is population has decreased so we can better fill two schools. I graduated from Benton in 1962. At the age of 16, I got my drivers license. The main parking lot at that time was adequate for our population. If you currently drive past Benton today, the main lot is full and the parkway has been turned into a parking lot. Have they changed the driving age? A suggestion would be if this $80 million bond is approved, just think how Benton students could prosper with their new environment.
The section mantra is some classes are too small so two schools will make a more conducive class. In the past years, the teachers have complained that big classes do not make a good learning environment. Here are my suggestions: New walls do not educate, so stop saying it’s all about the kids because our kids are failing by national standards.
And finally, the SJSB needs to get new ideas on how to better educate our kids. Like any employer, we the tax payers are not happy with your pursuits. And taxed or tax free means more money for you to continue your personal quests.
Richard Sharp
St. Joseph
