Speakout 3/7

The New Madrid County Central School Board will be meeting March 8 to make a decision which will affect the students and faculty of New Madrid County Central High School. The school board will decide whether to give the teachers and administrators a 4 percent pay raise and lay off four teachers for the 2004-05 school year or to keep the teachers and no one gets a pay raise. The teachers recommended for layoff are one math teacher, one social studies teacher, one English teacher and one art teacher. Classrooms that are already crowded with 25 plus student per class will reach over 30. The only way to prevent these school layoffs is for New Madrid school district residents to show up to the school board meeting on March 8 and make sure that their voices are heard. The school board does not seem to be thinking about other options like keeping the teachers and recommending a smaller pay raise. Recently the school board accepted superintendent Mike Barnes's retirement and then agreed to pay him $25,000 a year in addition to his full retirement so he can be in an advisory capacity for the school district. There is not time frame for this advisory position meaning it could go on indefinitely. New Madrid school district residents need to become more involved in their children's education. A first step would be to show up at the school board meeting or call them. The following are New Madrid County R-1 School Board Members: Randy Porter, Harvey Graham, Jean Higgerson, Don Brittain, John C. Davis Jr., Scott Riley and Ralph Barnwell. These are elected officials who I'm sure would appreciate hearing from their constituents.

I get so tired of reading this stuff about Hillary Clinton being a devil and all of them being trash. It takes one to know one, buddy. You must be the one who needs to get out of the kitchen. You are a coward for saying it in the paper and not to their face and it's all lies. The Democrats are much better than the Republicans who have got nothing but a bunch of crooks.

I read in the Feb. 25 newspaper about concerns about the budget for the Extension Service in New Madrid County. As a former Extension employee and in the area, I am very concerned that the county commissioners have decided to cut the budgets by so terribly, terribly much. I think the thing that bothers me most is knowing that a great deal of Sikeston (where I live) is in New Madrid County and I'm sure that the county coffers are being filled from much of the real estate taxes that go to New Madrid County. Why in the world was the concern of the county commission to cut that budget? I could be wrong, but it seems to me that they have plenty of money down there. Extension is very valuable to all of the counties, especially here in the Bootheel area where is probably the best and biggest farming area in the state of Missouri. Not only for farmers, but for homemakers, the youth with 4H programs, it's beyond me to understand why the county commission is so much against Extension in New Madrid County.