I noted in your paper recently about the “magical wizardry” of the Allegany County Board of Education (“Board finds $2M for Greenway Stadium,” May 12 Times-News, Page 1A).

I read the article where the school board worked a “financial miracle” by finding over $2 million dollars that it didn’t need to give to the renovation of Greenway Avenue Stadium at Fort Hill High School, and additional money for the ballfield at Mountain Ridge High School.

I must say I was simply shocked by this “magical financial miracle,” because it was only a couple of school years ago that the school board ruthlessly closed our Westmar Middle School building in Westernport, under the totally ridiculous assertion that they were doing it because they had the need to save $120,000 per year by doing so.

The school board made three different attempts to close the building under COMAR regulations, over a three-year period of repeated attempts, until they got away with it against the will of the people.

They repeatedly made these efforts to close the building, regardless of the evidence contained in several community reports that proved that the citizens from the affected area wanted to keep it open and operating! So much for democracy!

Additionally, it has been the policy of the school board for many years to state that, “They are not in the business of funding stadiums.” I guess after the school board clearly showed the people of the Westemport area that they simply do not matter to them, policy and conditions must have changed.

After they raped our community by closing yet another school building against our wishes, we now get up every morning and watch our children being bused completely out of our community to fill empty seats in the new Mountain Ridge High School in Frostburg. Why didn’t they build a smaller school, save millions of dollars and leave our children alone?

We will never forget the ruthless and totalitarian action of an uncaring Allegany County Board of Education! We will never forget! Some people say, “Remember Pearl Harbor!” People in our community say, “Remember Bruce High School!”

The result is that the school board spent over $42 million dollars on the new high school because of, as they stated, “The need to save $120,000 per year by closing our school.”

The county commissioners are on the hook for over $10 million dollars of our taxpayer money as their share of the project.

Now, all of a sudden, the school board funds stadiums and is pouring millions of dollars into them, while simultaneously (as they state) looking for stimulus money or any other type of additional funds — just so they can buy textbooks! Something is wrong with this picture.

Since it is obvious that the school board was hiding several million dollars that they really didn’t need, I strongly propose to the county commissioners that they cut their next budget by several million dollars and keep a sharp eye on how they are spending their money. Maybe the citizens of our county could then get a “tax break”!

Since these millions are now being used for purposes that the school board never spent money on before, the appropriate thing for the school board to do is to rectify the sham that they inflicted on the community of Westernport and reacquire and reopen our former Westmar Middle School building as an operating school.

We are waiting to talk. Are there any honorable people on the school board?

Thomas R. Marsh

Westernport

Spokesman for Taxpayers Alliance For Fair & Honest Government