My high school daughter came home today astounded: “Mom, they’re firing lots of teachers! One of them is … one of the best teachers at Edward Little.”

She and her friends were amazed that their teachers were being fired to save money when “teachers don’t cost as much as just one of the banners flying over Festival Plaza.”

It is astonishing that the city can make wealthier developers out of several very wealthy developers by building parking garages and Hilton Hotels, work to ensure that AVCOG does not pay the taxes even the city lawyers say it should pay (a teacher’s salary right there), build new city halls (with misworded imprints that cost more than a teacher or two), spend thousands of dollars trying to smear its own police department for questionable reasons, but cannot retain its teachers and is forcing firings and the demise of sports teams.

We were once a family town with clear, solid values. Now, even our children question the motives of City Manager Pat Finnegan and most of our city councilors, with the notable exceptions of Bob Mennealy and Belinda Gerry. Other councilors need to move on.

The children who mourn the loss of their teachers will soon be voters. Let’s offer them new people to elect for our city government before the city of Auburn is unrecognizable from the town it used to be. We are selling our souls to developers, and we are selling out our children.

Charlene McPhee, Auburn