Dear editor:

Is our Colquitt County School Board a master of deceit, or does the board just find it impossible to tell the truth – the whole truth?

You will recall that just before the vote last year as to whether some of the funds from the ESPLOST should be used to build an enclosed football practice field, the school board was quoted twice in the paper.

 In the Sunday Observer just two days before the vote on Tuesday, the board said that a 60-yard facility costing a little over $3 million would be constructed if voters approved.

No additional athletic facilities were mentioned in the article or on the ballot. The yes votes won by a very small margin. However, an article in the December 30, 2016, Observer describes a 100-yard enclosed football field and an additional 100-yard open practice field, an 8,000 square foot weight room, new offices for the head coach and all other coaches, and a kitchen and dining room for athletes, which are under construction.

The article stated the cost of the open practice field would be $1,000,000. The article did not list the cost of the other facilities (on purpose I suggest). The updated total cost for these athletic facilities is $10,962,252.00. That is nearly $11 million! The voters approved a little over $3 million. You were hoodwinked!

Remember this is an educational SPLOST. While we are spending $11 million on athletic facilities, half of which is for an air conditioned, 100-yard enclosed, practice football field, our test scores lag 10 points behind the state’s average.What will be the advantage of an air-conditioned practice facility when the team will have to go across town and play in 95-degree heat or maybe rain? Or they might have playoff games in the Atlanta area in 35-degree weather with rain.

If there are any teams which do not need an indoor practice field, it’s our South Georgia teams. Our superintendent calls our $5.5 million dollar practice field our “crown jewel”. We will be the “talk of the state” with our sports facilities. Maybe no one will mention our failing schools.

I’m sure companies will be standing in line to locate here because of our sports facilities. After all, they are not interested in employees who are proficient in math, science, composition, verbal skills, or computer technology. For Heaven sakes, these board members were elected by their friends and neighbors to serve on the school board – not the C.I.A. Why can’t they just be up front with us and tell us before they spend our tax money instead of after they spend it?

 While we are spending millions and millions of dollars on sports facilities, there are very elderly taxpayers who can’t afford to buy groceries and medicine. Yet they are still required to pay school property taxes, and the school board will not allow a vote to exempt them from these taxes.

Bruce Leigh

Moultrie