I should buy food for the children, but I already promised myself a big screen TV.

We all have to make decisions about how to spend our money. However, when it comes to fiscal responsibility, PSD has some very mixed up priorities.  One of the places this is most apparent is in they way it builds, uses, and maintains it's buildings.

In a district that can not keep up with current growth, all of our elementary schools are bursting at the seams. Instead of building a new elementary school, PSD recently suggested that we tear down and rebuild Livingston and McGee.

Money was voted on in the bond years ago to build a proper facility for New Horizons high school. That money is still sitting in the bank, while some of our most desperate learners are sitting in a building that is literally infested with rats.

Last spring McLoughlin Middle School flooded and an entire wing of the school had to be evacuated.  Teachers lost thousands of dollars in materials, and students were literally floating boats down the hallways. At the same time across town, Stevens Middle School had water pouring in from their ceiling light fixtures. PSD's solution? They sent a custodian in to put duct tape over the lights to keep the water from leaking out.

While our current schools are nearly all over capacity, PSD wants to spend 15 million dollars on a pre-school. This is despite the fact the voters have turned down this proposal and there are programs already in place to help disadvantaged preschool children, fully funded and available now. Other programs that could reach even more students than a single pre-school, and have been proven effective, could be obtained for a fraction of the cost and would not add to the overcrowding issues.

We desperately need more teachers, but the biggest area of growth in our budget was for district level administrators.

Whenever a politician is in town, Saundra Hill is happy to parade them through Pasco's best and brightest classrooms while completely ignoring the needs of so many of our students and teachers who suffer in miserable and unsafe conditions.


What can you do?
Call Saundra Hill and the school board and let them know you feel these things are unacceptable.
Write a letter to the editor letting the community know you won't have your money going towards unsafe schools.
Call OSPI and file a complaint. Let the state know that Pasco is not using their funding appropriately.