Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The Gazette-Journal has admonished letter writers to keep it short, but in the case of the school budget process in Mathews County, there is a lot of pent-up frustration coming out in these letters. The elected officials in Mathews County have allowed the budget process to be driven by one set of statistics provided by the superintendent of schools, who has a vested interest in the numbers he uses. When was the last time they were seriously challenged by a member of the school board or the board of supervisors?

In the absence of leadership from people who were elected to provide leadership, we continue the pattern of insults and emotionalism. One letter says, once again, everything is the fault of "lazy teachers." That’s been said every year for as long as I can remember. That is answered by the appeal to the "wonderful kids and great teachers" we have, but neither of these letters discussed numbers and statistics.

I thank Dr. ...