As a result of the governor's proposed cuts, every school district in Pennsylvania is scrambling to balance its budget -- forced to either reduce already lean spending or raise taxes.

School boards are being careful and cautious, as they should be, except in the Carlynton School District.

The board president and four other directors voted last month to proceed with a building project approaching $40 million that would empty the district's fund balance coffers and increase annual spending upward of $1.6 million with debt service payments for the next 20 years.

Spending in Carlynton's current year budget already exceeds revenue. Add to that deficit the cut in state funding and increases to pension contributions, and the revenue shortfall more than doubles to an amount equal to the revenue raised by about 5 mills in the Carlynton district, which covers Carnegie, Crafton and Rosslyn Farms.

Clearly, adding to that deficit an additional $1.6 million in spending every year makes no sense.

So it was puzzling to read "Fund cuts could halt merger" last week, (Post-Gazette, March 24) the Carlynton board president's reaction to the governor's proposed public education funding cut, which followed a yearlong public outcry within the district against the costly building project.

As reported, the board president is now considering making a motion to "suspend" work on the project and, instead, cut the millage rate.

While care and caution dictate avoiding any huge and expensive project at this time, they also require that all school boards preserve their current revenue streams.

It is foolhardy and a disservice to the district, its taxpayers and its students to dangle a promise of a tax cut any responsible resident knows can't -- and more importantly shouldn't -- be kept.

DAVID G. ROUSSOS

Crafton

Note: The author was a Carlynton school director from 2001 to 2009 and was president from 2003 to 2008.

I am concerned with the treatment of former head football coach Jon Miller by the Moon Area School District. Coach Miller has made the only decision that he could -- to resign. The way he was treated was shameful.

Coach Miller continued to drive about an hour each way to train and coach Moon's team in the hope that he would be offered a teaching position and be able to move his family to this district. There is absolutely no reason our football coach should not also be one of our teachers.

Having the coach on the teaching staff makes for a better football program and for better students. If the coach is also a teacher, then he has the ability to make his presence felt to the players much more consistently and to push them to do their best both in and out of school.

I understand that athletics are what motivate many of our students to do well in school. It is disheartening to see how other districts treat their coaches and teams as opposed to the way ours are being treated. This is just another example of the highhanded attitude with which Moon students, parents and faculty are being treated.

This decision was not only unprofessional, it was also unethical. Moon's reputation as a leading educational institution among Pennsylvania school districts is quickly dying, and I, for one, think that is not only shameful but also avoidable.

CARRIE LYNN HARRISON

Moon