Editor, Gazette-Journal:

I must respond to Mr. McGovern’s recent letter to the editor regarding the Gloucester Board of Supervisors’ (BOS) actions on the school budget (Readers Write, May 15, 2014). I attended the public hearing of which he wrote and did indeed see the 100 attendees supporting the school board’s proposed budget. These attendees dutifully followed an e-mailed request from the board to show up and support the budget (one of my neighbors who works for the school system received one of these rallying messages). There were approximately a dozen speakers in favor of the budget (not the 100 that Mr. McGovern implied).

There were also approximately 30 citizens (not just the six who spoke) who supported the BOS pledge to stop our county’s ever-expanding expenditures and taxes. The school budget is the largest single piece of the county’s budget. Question: Why should the school budget increase for a declining student population?

A year ago, I ask...