I would like to thank Sheila Nokes, Lake Washington Education Support Professionals for her informative letter last week. I also read the letter that LWSD Communications Director Kathryn Reith posted on the district Web site.

Ms. Reith defended the retreat taken by the LWSD administrators and the school board in Leavenworth saying that board members saved their meeting stipends (about $5000) to pay for the retreat. I question why LWSD would take our local tax dollars to another county when local businesses are also suffering in this recession. The Kirkland City Council is holding their retreat in Kirkland. Maybe LWSD shouldn’t be “retreating” while the house is on fire.

Ms. Reith also defended the administrative raises by saying the adjustments were made during the summer of 2008, before the budget deficits. I don’t know where the LWSD board and administrators were during the summer of 2008, but most people were well aware of the fact that an already bad financial situation was spiraling down. I do remember Dr. Kimball stating that there would be no raises for anyone, including the administration during the budget meeting I attended. He didn’t bother to mention that they had already received very substantial increases between $10,000 and $22,500. Just to go on record here, I don’t care what their counterparts were earning – no one should get raises when they are cutting programs, increasing fees and laying off personnel.

Ms. Reith is also quoted in the March 10 article as stating, “the challenge is we cut all the items that the community said they can live without last time.” May I humbly suggest a couple of cuts I think we all could live with: cut the raises and cut one or two of the administrative positions. (How many administrators does it take to screw in a light bulb?) For the very first time, I understand the “tea party”!

Deanne Gilbert, Kirkland