NATCHEZ &8212; The Natchez schools aren&8217;t raising taxes, but they aren&8217;t lowering them either, and that was sin enough for three vocal citizens who showed up at Thursday&8217;s public hearing.

The total non-district-employee crowd was five, including one child and county Supervisor Henry Watts.

&8220;Everybody (who works for the district) seems to keep getting a raise, and we keep hiring more people,&8221; county resident Rosa Seyfarth said. &8220;The taxpayers are suffering. Between the supervisors and the schools you are killing us.&8221;

Seyfarth, her husband John and citizen Armando Ricci questioned the superintendent and school staff about everything from the number of principals and administrators to the cost of educating children.

Business Manager Margaret Parson said the school spent $8,743 per student last year. The bill to educate 11 special education students who are housed outside of Natchez at appropriate facilities was roughly $39,000 per student.

The public schools also paid for classes for 18 private school students who participated in programs offered.

Seyfarth and Ricci said they thought both sets of numbers were too high, but Superintendent Anthony Morris said they weren&8217;t out of line with other districts in the state.

The state average for per pupil expenditures is $7,208. The Natchez-Adams district ranks 47 out of 152 districts.

Seyfarth also asked about a new administrative position recently filled &8212; curriculum director &8212; the salary and why it was needed.

Morris said the pay is in the ballpark of $70,000. The director &8212;former McLaurin Elementary Principal Karen Tutor &8212; will work to make sure classroom teachers are covering material accountability standards require them to know.

&8220;It seems like principals and the teachers should be responsible for whatever goes on in their classroom,&8221; Seyfarth said.

But there&8217;s more to it than that, Morris said.

&8220;You have to have some level of guidance from the central office level to make sure they are implementing all the standards,&8221; he said.

The group also asked about the financial effectiveness of the district&8217;s contract with Durham School Services for bus transportation.

Though the numbers don&8217;t necessarily show it, Parson said the cost-savings have been tremendous. The private company replaced 23 old buses with much newer ones, something the district could not have afforded.

Durham also covers insurance, benefits and things like workers compensation &8212; all major expenses the district doesn&8217;t have to think about, Parson said.

&8220;We were not providing the same quality of service they are providing,&8221; Parson said.

The district is currently reviewing the contract with Durham. It expires at the end of August.

Ultimately, the group and school officials agreed that full funding has to first come from the state before local taxpayers can get a break.

The state Legislature under funded the Natchez schools $1,015,211 this year according to their own Mississippi Adequate Education Program.

The district has only received full funding one time.

&8220;The bottom line is we are doing more for less,&8221; Morris said. &8220;We can assure you we are getting all the mileage we can out of your dollar. We are taxpayers too.&8221;

Watts stressed that local taxpayers have to lobby the Legislature for full education funding before anything will be done. But all present said they were discouraged by the small crowd and the hearing, and didn&8217;t expect a large-scale campaign for funding from the public.

&8220;I think y&8217;all have done a pretty good job this year,&8221; Watts said. &8220;But we&8217;ve got to do something about the state funding.&8221;