Michelle Long – 9/11/07

This page was last updated on September 19, 2007.

About the district’s marquee; Michelle Long; Beaver County Times; September 11, 2007.

In a previous letter (“The message board police,” 7/11/06), Ms. Long attempted unsuccessfully to defend the poor grammar she employed in a message she posted on a Rochester Area School District message board. Ms. Long also asserted, “I am a volunteer who changes the board every week. I do this if it is 100 degrees or 20 degrees below.”

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I would like to set the record straight on the new electronic message board at the Rochester Area School District.

“I have heard many rumors about this and feel it is time that I put these to rest.

“First and foremost, not one dime of school tax money was spent on that marquee.

“It was all paid for through a grant from the state that former state Rep. Mike Veon helped to acquire. (I can hear the slack already. This part does not require a response, thank you.)”

[RWC] The message Ms. Long is sending is, as long as state taxpayers paid for the sign, it’s OK. What Ms. Long fails to note tax dollars are fungible.

“I have heard that there are families out there bragging that they got it for the school. Again, a rumor.

“There have been a few more that were so ridiculous, I won’t take the time to type them.

“I wrote the grant, along with my husband James’s input. After I completed it, the superintendent checked it over and it was submitted. After a year and seven months, the money came through and the marquee was ordered and installed.

“I did it for the district, not for any glory. It looks nice and is [an] asset to the school.

[RWC] Yet Ms. Long wrote a letter to make sure we knew she was the person who wrote the request with her “husband James’s [sic] input.”

“End of story.”

[RWC] I don’t know if we’re talking about the same message board or not, but could the “new electronic message board” make Ms. Long’s volunteer duties noted above a little easier? There’s nothing wrong with that, but disclosure either way would have been appropriate.

In a comment on the Times website by “A Rochester resident,” the author took the time to thank the person (Ms. Long) who asked for a handout from state taxpayers, but did not thank the taxpayers themselves.

Finally, why are state taxpayers paying for something like this instead of local taxpayers? It’s cheaper for everyone when we pay our own way.