To the editor:

Under the leadership of Board of Educa-tion President Cindy Christopher and Su-perintendent Tim Ricker, we have witnessed one of the greatest free falls in recent history of the Mehlville School District.

Never before has there been such a colossal collapse. Proposition P is now $20.5 million over budget despite Mrs. Christo-pher’s proclamation that Proposition P was on time and on budget at Mehlville’s re-cognition banquet in April 2003. Without a doubt, Proposition P has been horribly mis-managed.

When Mrs. Christopher became board president, she proclaimed one of her goals was Blue Ribbon Schools. We now know Mehlville has fallen 27 percent on its Annual Performance Report from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Low test scores are the reason for this drop.

Where are the Blue Ribbon Schools?

Lastly, public relations between the Mehlville School District and our community are an embarrassment. Charging people money for public information and not talking to the local press is foolish.

So happens that there are three board seats up for grabs next April. So happens Mrs. Christopher’s seat is one of them. Filing starts Dec. 14. For those of us who love the Mehlville School District, we need a change in leadership to take our school district back to the rich tradition it once was.

Daniel S. Fowler

Oakville

Editor’s note: Mr. Fowler served nine years on the Mehlville Board of Education and was a board officer six of those years. He also served as chairman of both the Citizens’ Advisory Committee for Facilities and the Citizens to Protect Our Investment.