Consider who supports bond referendum

To the Editor:

I encourage the voters of Bessemer Area School District to vote “no” May 6 on the bond referendum.

As voters you need to take a serious look at who’s leading the support for the referendum: administrators, board members, support staff, teachers and their families. The same people who don’t want consolidation. Might they have alternative reasons? I think so.

If the bond passes they will use “we paid for our schools already” against consolidation. They know a consolidated district will start fresh, a new board will hire a superintendent, the teachers and the support staff.

Both school districts’ bonds are close to being paid off. Wakefield-Marenisco’s bond will be paid off in 2015 and Bessemer’s current bond will be paid off in 2018. In a consolidated district, each community would retain their respective debt. So the Bessemer/Bessemer Township area would pay off Bessemer Area Schools debt and Wakefield/Wakefield Township/Marenisco Township would pay off the W-M school debt.

The only way to combine the debt would be by a vote of all communities involved after consolidation. Any new debt of the consolidated district would be shared by all communities.

I encourage voters to visit the “Vote ‘no’ May 6, 2014, on the Bessemer School Bond Referendum” and “Consolidation” Facebook pages.

William Hill

Bessemer