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York City School District, get a grip! We're in a recession! Why should you be able to just reach out and take what you want for a budget increase, in the name of education, with all the examples of waste and frivolous spending that have come to light. Do you feel that by being part of a bureaucracy it gives you entitlement to salary increases and benefits the hard working common man doesn't get due to the economy?

This is an open letter to all the tax paying residents of Eastern School District. On Dec. 4 the school board will vote on spending AT LEAST $650,000 for artificial turf on the HS football field. The administration also recommends that the board approve Resolution #110108 that indicates they will not raise our taxes MORE than 5.3% in the next school year.

My question is this. Isn't the school board aware of our current economic spiral? Aren't they aware that a lot of households in their school district are having to cut expenditures everywhere they can just to maintain their own food and housing needs? They promise not to raise our taxes more than 5.3% in the next year? I am outraged!

York City School District, get a grip on reality. $90,000 for a software package to record school board meetings. Ludicrous is the best description I can think of for this plan. The time frame used here is laughable. A software package that won't be obsolete in 180 years? Give me a break. None of you will even be alive when it becomes uhh..obsolete. Software is now obsolete in, at the best, 20 years. Take this as sound analysis from a "geek" who has worked with everything from PCs to mainframes. It's high time YCSD starts pulling in their belt and spending their money for education and denying frivolous purchases.

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How apropos! On page 22 of this Sunday's Baltimore Sun, there is an ad for the upcoming Steinway piano factory event sale. "Over 100 new and used factory direct, family of Steinway pianos under one roof..."

I hope the South Eastern School District's Board of School Directors saw the ad. We wouldn't want them to miss the opportunity to save the taxpayers some money if they insist on proceeding with the district's proposed purchase of a $97,000 Steinway grand piano. Being responsible stewards of the taxpayers' money is their fiduciary obligation, after all.

David Mohan
Stewartstown

Thorns to the York Daily Record for criticizing the Southeastern School Board's willingness to hear a presentation about the purchase of a new piano. The piano in question will actually SAVE the taxpayers money over the long haul. How do I know? I asked the right person. You could say I "interviewed" the people who have the relevant information, did a little "research" before I wrote this letter - maybe you could call it an "article." Like a newspaper might do if it was more interested in finding out the "facts" rather than bashing school officials trying to do their job.

Janet Winters
Stewartstown

Is the ACT 72 Tax Rebate program a joke on the tax payers?

Was my current school tax bill a sneaky sham? I am not laughing at either. I read an article in a February 2008 edition of the paper outlining all the "approved" tax millage rates - right on the front page. The rates printed were supposedly approved by York County Govt. and ALL the school districts. I cut that tax rate table out and saved it.

When I received my tax bill during the first week of July, I noticed the "discounted" appraisal of my home value - thereby reducing my tax. Yipee! A small savings but hey, that's great! Then I noticed a rate of 18.34 that did not coincide with the rate I had noted in February of 17.2.

After some research, I found new information online. According to this document, the tax rates were revised on June 30, 2008. Most all of the York county school districts (except the Northern ones) had increased their millage rates!

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