JOHN ANDREWS STATEMENT

By John L. Andrews

ISSUES AND IDEAS ARE HIGHLIGHTED

I am a GOP member but not GOP-endorsed. Being retired, I have no children in any school. I am like a lot of our residents and the sole retired candidate!

I do have six years of education beyond high school and degrees from two great colleges. I have a lifetime of technical experience and with my wife, Suzanne, raised and educated three children, in Upper Merion Area schools and private colleges. Suzanne was a Director over there. We have lived in Lower Providence for a dozen years and know Methacton's educational quality level.

For three years, I have attended most Methacton Board meetings but have seen little of the other candidates there. I've mostly fought the on-going Arcola Expansion and its false premise of rising enrollment as enrollment drops; it is unneeded. I am an effective watchdog on that and a variety of other questionable decisions.

The Board okayed the sale of $30M of bonds last December; had the District waited a month, they would have saved us $3M in interest payments. Now they want to pay a portion of the first two year's interest costs with money from reserves in a way that hides current costs.

The Board adopted the 2009-2010 preliminary budget's 7.38% tax increase that may be cut to only a 4% increase.

The Board is not responsibly dealing with our enrollment decline, the miserable economy or the layoffs planned at the large local Wyeth facilities. The Board has received `sketches' for $30+M of more expansion. The winning GOP claims of two years ago to have cost-effective management were a failed promise.

This new expansion and other issues need good minds, dedication and principles to balance education needs and the capacity to pay for them.

Improving education quality, more Sunshine and transparency do not require endless tax increases. I have `fire in my belly' that should be put to good use here in over-coming `special-interest' politics with skill, reason and morality.

You can get more information about my campaign by sending a blank e-mail to JLAndr337@aol.com. In return, you will get a .PDF file with facts about the Arcola Expansion and Methacton's enrollments.

Please help Methacton, its residents and students by giving me a vote on May 19.