Letter: Why were buildings allowed to decay?

The West Hempstead school district recently held a special vote for a bond issue to repair the aging school buildings ["$46M school bond rejected," News, Nov. 18]. The measure was defeat nearly 2 to 1.

As residents of the district, we were hit with sticker shock by how much this bond would have added to our annual school taxes.

Our question to school district leaders is, why were the school buildings allowed to decay to the point that a massive tax increase is required for repairs? A more sensible approach would have been a smaller amount of spending in each annual budget.

This money could have been held in a special account until sufficient funds were available for major repairs and upgrades.

Craig and Diane Henry, West Hempstead