According to reader, there are too many school taxes already

In 2006, Oak Park voters narrowly approved Measure C6, a "school safety, equipment and technology improvement bond."

The bond issue qualified under California's Proposition 39, requiring only a 55 percent majority for passage. Central to Proposition 39 is an obligation that "[bond proceeds] not be used for teacher and administrator's salaries or other operating expenses."

Through June 30, 2008, over $300,000 in C6 funding has been spent on administrative salaries, benefits and teacher stipends. Of this amount, $43,000 subsidized the assistant superintendent's salary, an expenditure opined by the district's own bond counsel as "odd, and perhaps inappropriate."

When questioned, the district insists that these administrators provide oversight "necessary and incidental" to the acquisition and installation of authorized bond projects. Still, the district found need to spend another $120,000 to hire a project management firm.

The OPUSD has also spent over $10,000 in C6 bond money for hotel rooms and meals. Again, probably not what the taxpayers intended, and certainly not a prudent expenditure of borrowed funds.

The district's bond counsel recently described the Oversight Committee as "having virtually no powers." The taxpayers of Oak Park have very little recourse other than to file an independent lawsuit when they believe funds are being spent in a questionable manner.

This November, voters are being asked to approve another $29.4 million in school improvement bonds. A brief outline of the district's intended projects raises immediate concern: $1.4 million is allocated "for the removal of portable classrooms not needed due to declining enrollment."

Long-term financing will be used for the removal, rather than acquisition or renovation of facilities.

Certainly, our community is supportive of its schools and acknowledges the need to improve and modernize school facilities.

However, before agreeing to encumber our homes with additional taxes, we should carefully evaluate the OPUSD's recent record on bond spending. To date, bond coffers seem to be regarded by the district as a means to offset administrative and operational costs.

Until the district recognizes their obligation to spend our money more prudently, I am reluctant to provide them with more and will be voting no on Measure R. Jerry Kaman Oak Park