Children lost 36,005+ lunches with latest school budget ...

At the June 2015 School Board meeting, trustees passed a budget 5-1 after three readings.  The Pickens County people are to be congratulated.  After being criticized for not doing anything for education over the past two years by the special interest group Concerned Citizens of Pickens County, they passed a budget that gives the teachers not one, not two but three salary increases.  About 50% of the working population in Pickens County average under $20,000 in income a year when you take the teachers out that make an average of $48,000.  

But, this assures our children of an excellent education.  

Does this mean new goals have been presented or just more money?  Oh well, the people get well paid teachers for just 5 big bag lunches at Hardee's.  You won't mind giving up your lunch for five days so the teachers can be well paid, right?

Out of all the things to compare a tax increase to! We have some schools in the county that are higher than 70% reduced or free lunch. I'd say that even one meal is a lot to Pickens County family.

Just to add a little spice to the lunch that a proponent of more money for education said would cost you just $24 (not including the increases on cars,etc. - which aren't partially tax exempt) and increases over the years due to reassessment,  the school board voted to give the Superintendent a $100,000 discretionary fund and the board a $100,000.  How many Bag Lunches can you buy for $200,000 (try 36,000).  

This was put in the budget to avoid SC Law 12-43-285.  This tries to make sure they obey the law while taking your money illegally.  

This budget gets rid of teachers as pointed out by Trustee Alex Saitta.  A 21.5 to 1 student to teacher ratio seems to be the magic number.  If education is as bad as it seems, why not keep some of the teachers and reduce class sizes?  

This budget is one of the worst budgets I've seen anywhere. It is full of deception and overspending.

Junius Smith