To the editor:

I have a question for Tom Diehl of Mehlville’s Board of Education: Why were no administrators listed in your cost-cutting efforts, just teachers?

You so deftly pointed out how ill paid Mehlville’s teachers are, but yet did not mention how well paid the administrators are.

Surely, if the administrators also ranked 22nd out of 24 in average pay in the St. Louis area, you would have mentioned it. I don’t know where they rank, but my guess is it’s not 22nd.

When Forder’s principal, Sue Texier, was my son’s — excellent — fourth-grade teacher at the Catholic school across the street, she saw firsthand how one principal, with the help of one good secretary, was able to stretch the educational buck. I hope she is using that skill now.

I’ll vote for increases for Mehlville when they start trimming the real fat. To me, that means in administration. I have yet to hear one student stand up after receiving an achievement award and say, “I’d like to thank the vice principal.”

Barbara Duchek

Concord