Taxpayers criticize district spending, electronic message boards and tax increases at Whitehall-Coplay meeting

Several residents used the public-comment period at the Oct. 27 Whitehall-Coplay School District board meeting to criticize district spending and recent tax increases.

Bruce Charles told the board "do our directors deserve to be reelected after voting for outrageous tax increases year after year? The simple answer is no," and called recent purchases, including electronic message boards along roadways and color displays in stadiums or gyms, examples of "out of control spending." Charles said those purchases amounted to "hundreds of thousand of dollars" and urged the board to impose givebacks in the next teacher contract and to review positions for elimination.

Mister Kopack raised similar concerns, criticizing what he described as repeated tax increases (he referred to a previously mentioned 4.6% increase) and questioned the value and programming choices of the district's message board, saying it repeatedly broadcasts merchandising and promotional content rather than community acknowledgments such as Veterans Day messages. Kopack also urged the board to examine staffing ratios and said the district might have more teachers than current enrollment requires.

Board members responded to the speakers' points by noting the budget process is tied to state funding and that the district has not yet received final state numbers; the board said it will address budget questions during upcoming committee meetings once state funding is known. No formal board action on the spending complaints was taken at the Oct. 27 meeting.

The transcript records the speakers' allegations and the board's procedural reply; it does not provide contract invoices or dollar-amount backing for the claims. Where the transcript records dollar or percentage figures, they were stated by public commentators and not read into the record by district staff.