Editor, The Herald:

The purpose of this letter is to state the need to replace Prince Edward County School Superintendent Dr. David Smith. Dr. Smith has been the superintendent since 2010.

The reasons for this are as follows:

• Enrollment has dropped from 2,459 to 2,035 students during Dr. Smith’s tenure and resulted in a loss of more than $3 million in state and federal funding.

• Scholastic achievement testing results as reported by SchoolDigger.com show the school system is rated 127 out of 129 school districts in the state while spending more per student than the majority of school systems in the state. Dr. Smith has refused to present a plan for improvement in these scores.

• During Dr. Smith’s time as superintendent, the Prince Edward County school system has practiced poor financial management. Example: In 2014, a school employee was charged with embezzlement of an air-conditioning system. Proper purchasing and accounting procedures would have prevented this.

• Dr. Smith and the School Board have refused to reduce their budget and prevent a tax increase, even though they have just retired debt service of $366,905 a year and fuel costs are down 30 percent over last year.

For the above reasons, I am calling on the school board to terminate Dr. Smith. I am also calling on the School Board to bring in a competent superintendent who is fiscally responsible and will provide the leadership necessary to administrate an academically successful school system.

School Board members, do your job and terminate Dr. Smith. There is a petition circulating now to implement elected school boards in the county because the School Board and Dr. Smith have failed to do what they are getting paid to do.

Sam Campbell

Pamplin