Just the facts

To the editor: I would like to respond to Reggie Cheong-Leen’s letter to the editor last week (12/8) that expressed disapproval over the Delaware Valley School District’s decision to purchase the Santos property. I suggest that anyone exercising his or her right to free speech make sure they get “facts” straight before making such criticisms. It’s an acceptable fact of life that our taxes support our children’s schools, but I do not see those taxes jumping at any “alarming rate” as Leen suggests. I don’t see businesses rushing to buy up land in Milford, so why shouldn’t the forward-thinking school Board take advantage of the opportunity to purchase mostly-usable land in a convenient location. Whether businesses build there or not, people continue to move into our District in droves. New and expanded school facilities, then, are also a fact we need to accept and welcome. Leen’s comparison of the Santos property purchase to buying land on 5th Avenue in NYC to build a school is illogical and inane. Likewise is his comment about the taxpayers funding “whatever extravagance” the school Board has “the whim to spend.” We need to face the fact that we will need, in the very near future, additional space for the education of our children. The school district is planning for that, and for that “fact,” they should be applauded. Ernie Sandonato Milford