Jacksonville ISD bond proposal: Here we go again
DON B. GATELEY Jacksonville

I ran for the school board this year because I, like a lot of people in Jacksonville did not like some of the decisions made by our current board.

Let's see, they paid $30,000 per acre for 22 acres adjoining the high school for possible expansion. However, there is a high pressure gas line running through the property that will have to be moved before any school buildings can be built. Not a good decision.

A year or so after that they voted to spend $2.2 million for an athletic field house when they knew that $1.5 to $2 million was needed for repairs on the middle school roof. Not a good decision.

The school board instituted a standardized dress code for all campuses when an overwhelming number of parents spoke out against it. And by the way, a male student in a dress is within code, and since colors for ties, belts and socks were not specifically listed, well, you can just imagine what some of our students look like. Not a good decision.

In 2005 the board voted to have a $62 million bond election on the same day that a poll showed 80 percent of the responders against it. Not a good decision.

Last year the board voted to have a multimillion dollar bond election for one OR two schools. This decision was also made after the poll showed the majority of responders did not want any schools. Not a good decision.

That brings us up to the present where the board again has decided to hold a bond election after the poll responders said no. Not a good decision. I need to mention here that the school board has already spent more than $25,000 for the two failed bond elections, and this election will probably cost them another $8,000 to $12,000.

I do not believe that the current JISD board of trustees is in touch with the voters who put them in office, and it is painfully obvious that they do not make prudent decisions when it comes to spending our money.

Vote "no" on Nov. 6.