I want to commend John Neville for the fine job he’s done reporting on the Franklin referenda on this web site and in the Community Newspapers.
I hope you read John’s latest informative article on the referenda where he writes:
No plans available
What would the new facility look like?
School district officials do not have concept drawings or other schematics of the school for public viewing.Excuse me. When you build a new home, do you not have complete, specific drawings of what the new home would look like? Of course you do. They must think we’re really stupid.
Here’s what they’re essentially saying: We’ve got this great idea. We’ll build a new high school and have a new auditorium and a new swimming pool and new athletic facilities. We can’t show you what they look like because, well, to be honest, we don’t know what they’ll look like because we don’t have a drawing or rendering of what the project looks like. But trust us, it’ll really be great, and it’ll only cost you $78-million.
Would you buy a car this way? Would you buy a house this way?
Let’s get back to Neville’s article:
Where would a new high school be built? School district officials are seeking to purchase 100 to 125 acres for the proposed high school. They are now in negotiations with a land owner in an unidentified area of the city. Purchase price of the land is included in the referendum amount of $76.99 million.Oh, that’s just beautiful. They do not have an idea where to put this $78-million “God save education in Franklin Taj-Mahal” structure.
So, let’s review. They don’t know what the new school that we’re supposed to vote yes for will look like. Why not? Because they don’t have drawings for it.
They don’t know where the new school would be located because they don’t even have the land secured yet. And they want me and other Franklin voters to just blindly walk into the voter’s booth and say, sure, even with all these unanswered questions, please, take my money, jack up my taxes, I trust you, Franklin School District.
By the way, isn’t this the same Franklin School District Administration that went behind closed doors, and when the doors opened, the Superintendent announced he was resigning, and to this day, we have yet to get an explanation from the Franklin School District as to why, and yet, they tell us this referendum is tremendous and we’re just supposed to believe them, not object, show up Tuesday, shut up and just vote yes?????????????????????
I would never throw my tax money away just because someone asked for it. And I certainly wouldn’t voluntarily offer to pay more taxes when the doggone school district has no drawings, no plans, no site, no land, no nothing for this new school.
Wake up Franklin. These are the craziest referenda questions I’ve ever seen.
THE VOTE IS NO APRIL 3
