Before anyone votes in favor of the $27 million school referendum it would be helpful to have answers to the following questions:

Why should taxpayers have any faith in the financial management abilities of a school department that fails to spend a few hundred thousand dollars to maintain the Prides Corner School because the projections were that we don’t need the school space, and four years later we need that amount of school space at a cost of $27 million?

Why is it that the old Wescott Junior High School, which is now the community center, would have cost too much to maintain as a school, but somehow has been maintained as a community center with many of the same costs that would have been expended for a school building anyway?

Why is it that the various agencies and nonprofits that are located at the community center can not be relocated to one of the vacant commercial properties around town such as the old Legacy Publishing Building or One Riverfront Plaza, and the building reclaimed as a school at a cost far below $27 million?

Why wouldn’t the school department prefer more school space in the center of the town next to an existing school with all the necessary athletic fields, gym, pool, cafeteria and adjacent city land?

Why wouldn’t it cost less and be more convenient for more parents to transport children to and from a school at the center of town than to a school at the edge of the town? Why is it that the school department isn’t interested in looking at a low- cost solution to the current and projected enrollment crisis?

If we had some thoughtful and believable answers to these questions, then it could certainly make our decisions to vote in favor of the upcoming referendum a lot easier.

Ted Pitas

Westbrook