Tuesday night, the Northville Central school board held the public hearing on the Northville school budget for the 2008-09 school year. While the dialogue did not get out of control, there was a very thick tension in the auditorium that night. I was there to air my grievance about the unification of my daughter’s entire grade next year, but something bigger was amiss. Again and again, different people — parents, teachers and tax payers — kept reiterating the same points: The community will not bear the board’s support for an athletic director position which earns $20,000, nor will people tolerate the maintenance of a fourth administrator with a proposed salary of $70,000.

The proverbial dead horse was beaten, battered and tossed about all through the hearing, yet the board did not seem to understand the points made, ad nauseam, by the community whose children they serve. The board had no choice but to hear the complaints, but they did not listen.