To the Editor:
Being involved with FCPS as a mother of five (with four in three different schools), I feel that the school board has lost sight of its priorities. Do you wonder if they even listen to what we are saying?
The school board's importance stretches beyond the obvious, and a competent school board not only helps our children become successful members of society, but it affects all aspects of our locale – our local economy, our business climate, and our community.
Pete Kurzenhauser, a fellow member of our local community, will listen to us. He has earned the endorsement of the parents' group, "Class Size Counts" for his support over the years for smaller class sizes and for making it a central issue of his campaign. I personally have seen the problems of large class sizes with my five children in the local schools.
Pete is just as invested in the success of our schools – his two children have grown up in the FCPS school system, and he is a proud graduate of FCPS as well. And like all of us, he is tired of hearing how FCPS pays for trips to Orlando, Fla., for senior staff and other extravagances, or the school board giving itself a 60 percent pay raise, while always asking for more money. He realizes that we have to focus our resources on students and teachers in the classroom instead of various programs that have little or no measures of success, and he is pushing to get these programs audited. He is the person who made everyone aware that FCPS has $158 million in surplus cash leftover from the 2015 budget, which is enough to cover the "budget gap" in 2017 and beyond.
Once we get our finances and priorities in order, we can pay our teachers comparable salaries as surrounding counties, decrease class sizes, and plan our future budgets more appropriately.
Karen T. Barker
Great Falls