I can promise my vote in favor of the SPLOST in September, if the school board can tell me when the “permanent” trailers will be removed from schools like Huddleston Elementary and Booth Middle School.

So far, there has been a lot of talk about quality facilities for new people moving into Fayette County, but none about eliminating these eyesores for the rest of us.

Use the first SPLOST money to build permanent rooms instead of trailers, or give the trailers to the new school sites. There seems to be no respect for the homeowners, taxpayers, students and parents who support the existing school program.

The city would never allow property owners to park these rusting, ugly cheap trailers in our front yards – but they are allowed in the schools for years.

Now there will be 97 trailers in the system, to compensate for poor planning. The school board seems much more interested in talking about football fields and dress codes than about quality classrooms, based on the news coverage. That might be an explanation for poor academic performance against national standards.

I hope other parents and taxpayers will voice their concern over this misguided prioritization in Fayette County. Impact fees are the answer for new developments. They are used all over the United States, and they are fair to current taxpayers.

If the board will spend as much time on what goes on in the classrooms, and how we support real education, we will be much better off. Please get back on track.

There should have been a football field in the Starr's Mill plan to begin with, and now board meetings are consumed with talk of unnecessary and ineffective dress codes – as if that will make us all feel safe.

Meanwhile, we have a shortage of computers, school starts in the middle of August, teacher and bus driver pay is not competitive — and my confidence level in giving the board additional funding power sinks to a new low. Did anyone ask parents about these priorities? I have to wonder.

Dr. DeCotis (school superintendent John DeCotis), here is your chance to do the right things. Let's see a better plan to use this tax money for all of us.

Steven E. Forsyth
Peachtree City

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