To the Editor:

In response to the guest column by John Herrington and the letter from Ed Parsons (Worthington News, Nov. 11), I must say that asking people to think differently about school funding and future levies is one thing, but attacking our school district, its employees and our board of education is another thing entirely. If this were 100 years ago, I would slap their faces and call them out for a duel!

Somehow, these gentlemen try to make us believe that cutting 120 jobs in our community is something school board members wanted to do to take things away from our school children, and that they enjoy threatening people with massive cuts that are, in fact, bogus. All this is so ludicrous that I can hardly believe anyone wasted ink writing it!

Ridiculous statement No. 2 is to claim the cuts we would have had to make had the levy failed were bogus because the district has a cash surplus. You can never win with these people -- they demand that the district "live within its means," which means budgeting and saving money to last over a period of time.

If the district spends down to the point of not being able to meet expenses, it didn't plan well enough. If the district husbands its cash to last over a period of years, then it has a "cash surplus" and doesn't need more money. Apparently, planning for the future, anticipating need and being realistic about expenditures and revenue are not on Herrington's and Parsons' radar.

Accusing the district of wild spending habits and saying the sole purpose is to pay excessive salaries to teachers is again ludicrous. Saying we should "return to putting students first" is also a stupid and untrue statement. We try to attract and retain good teachers so that we can provide excellent educational opportunities to all our students. That is the district's sole purpose and focus.

What part of "A school is a service provider and services are provided by people in return for a salary" do these gentlemen not understand? Hiring and paying people to provide services to our students is the whole thing a school district does. That is putting students first. Duh!

I am really tired of people snarking around pretending to be rational and polite when they are really baselessly impeaching people's morals and attacking large numbers of people with unfounded accusations. I am calling them out. Stop the attacks! If you really care, run for the school board.

Three board members ran unopposed Nov. 3 because none of these naysayers has the stuff to really engage and do the hard work involved to help run the school district. So much easier to just run your mouth and making accusations.

Cathleen Sato