The Lexington advertiser. [volume] (Lexington, Miss.) 1904-1985, 1927-12-15
School Election Must
Garry for Benefit of
All, says Prof. >Kenna
To the Qualified Electors of Lexington

10 the Qualified Electors of Lexington
Separate School District:
Some questions that are being asked
by taxpayers in connection with the
election on the question of bond issue
for new high school building are given
below and l have attempted to answer
them.
l. What will be the result if the elec-
| tion is not carried?
First: 1t will be absolutely necessary
| for US to dismiss at least sixty children
| that come from the rural districts. Fol
each Of these the City of Lexington gets
| $4,000 which would mean loss in oul
school revenues of $37sO.00. That would
mean more than two mills additional
| levey if the school is maintained up tc
anything like standard school. The ad
| ditional levy for bond issue would
not be any more than that.
Secondly: These children will go te
some other large school in order to gel
| the advantages offered in such school
! They will not go back to one or two.
teacher school and you can't blame them
We cannot afford to let children from
our trade territory go elsewhere to
school. We want them to come to
Lexington for it means bigger and bet
ter school for Lexington, better oppor-
tunities for all children in our territory
and it makes the per capital cost of the
school considerably less for the town
and surrounding territory. With no ru-
raj children our tax levy for the school
would necessarily be twice what it is
now.
Thirdly: 1t means we will lose our
standing as an All-Southern school which
would be disastrous to the school inter-
ests of our community.
2. Do the rural children pay their
pro rata share of the cost of the school
Yes. We enumerate all items of cost
of the school and divide this by the
number enrolled. This gives the per
capita cost of the school and we get
exactly that amount for each child that
comes from without the district. This is
exactly what it costs for each child
that lives within the separate district.
3. Do the rural children have to pay
more than those that live in town? No.
1t is exactly the same.
4. How does this reduce the cost to
the town? The larger the number you
divide your overhead expense by, the
smaller is the per capita cost.
.. IL we loSt our opportunity W nave
a large central high school what effect
viii that have on the economic interest
of the town? The more people that
come to school here the more that have
their interests here. Business will go
to the town where the children go to
school This makes better town and
a better community.
6. Why is high school needed? We
invite you to come and see the crowded
conditions in our school at present and
you will see Immediately that some
thing will have to be done. We are GER
tanly face to face with serious crisis
in our school situation.
Finally, if we did not belive it to be
to the best interest of Lexington and
surrounding territory, we certainly
would not advocate such a move. We
do not like to see additional tax bur-
dens and we certainly would not ad-
vocate such move if we did not think
it absolutely necessary. We know, how
ever, it means a backward step in our