Congratulations to the Sun Journal for the excellent editorial on Barbara Eretzian’s consulting contract (Jan 10).

I would like to add some comments.

Eretzian should be personally ashamed of the fact that she aligned herself with such a contract – especially after having experienced the budget struggles of the Auburn School Department year after year in her position as the superintendent. Of all people, she should have recognized the better uses of the $45,000 to the School Department and gracefully bowed out of such an agreement. Shame on all those who were party to the sweet deal awarded to Eretzian. They showed a blatant disregard of public funds.

The one good thing that has come out of this transition is that there is one less highly paid permanent position in the Auburn School Department – that of the assistant superintendent. Nothing against Superintendent Tom Morrill, but was that position really necessary, and that, too, for four years?

Downsizing by attrition is the way of the real world, and that should happen in the school administration, too.

The very fact that Eretzian’s consultancy fees for the 2008-09 school year as a budget item will be revisited in the upcoming budget talks by the school committee is a travesty in itself. It is like adding insult to injury.

I can only hope that other taxpayers will speak up and put a stop to such nonsense before it gets out of hand.

Vinay Desai, Auburn