Editor, Gazette-Journal:

This is in reference to the article in the March 27 newspaper (“Gloucester school personnel plead with supervisors for more money”).

I urged the board of supervisors to very carefully reconsider increasing the pay of our teachers and other school staff. In the article, I read where some were against funding an increase in pay because the school board spent too much on rebuilding Page Middle School. That may have been true, but that has nothing to do with teachers’ pay. The county board should evaluate and assess all of the arguments the teachers and others offered in favor of more pay. If they are true, the board of supervisors should find a way to fund the increase.

I know it is popular now for elected officials to promise “no new taxes.” I find that totally irresponsible. No new taxes means that any new funding requirement has to be offset by reduced spending elsewhere in the budget. Eventually you reach the point where nothin...