I served as superintendent of schools on Martha’s Vineyard from 1970 to 1975, and spent 1978 until I retired in 2008 as a college president. I am now 88, and no longer drive; my wife of 61 years and I live near children and grandchildren in Northampton.

We became so attached to the Vineyard that we still get the Gazette. I was not surprised to read of the emergence of new buildings, especially for the regional high school and the Tisbury School. And the study of regional school expenses could have been written in the early ‘70s. Sadly, the present system is as inefficient as it was 50 years ago. And yet, there is something appealing about what feels like “local control.” But you do have to pay for it.

Of course, I am ridiculously out-of-date, but I still believe that every penny should be put into the quality of students’ education.

Jonathan M. Daube

Northampton