Saratoga News

Letters

Bonds are mortgages on everyone's property

I don't know who made up the "No on Measure D" Committee, but I should have joined them.

Just a short while ago, we residents of Leonard Road had a more personal experience with bond issues when we decided to form an assessment district to pave our road.

The contractor who did the work got $85,000. We got $170,000 in bond assessments--50 cents on the buck, plus interest for the next 20 years or so.

Bonds are mortgages on everyone's property. Bonds are deficit financing. Our kids will no doubt get to contribute to them, too. Everyone says we should reduce the deficit, yet we keep piling it on ourselves.

I have never seen a "good" bond issue. If we need something, we should pay for it. Better yet, save some of our tax money, let it draw interest, then spend it and get a buck and a half for your buck instead of half a buck.

Or maybe we should "redevelop" something other than fancy hotels, malls and monuments.

Maury Martin
Leonard Road

Project is in tune with Rotary objectives

Rotary Clubs have become an important institution as sponsoring organizations for a project modeled after the Marshall Plan. The Center for Citizen Initiatives has been working with groups such as Rotary to host Russian professionals--typically 10 individuals for a period of four weeks--for a Productivity Enhancement Program. During the stay, the Russians get work-site exposure and training at several local businesses and manufacturing sites.

Beginning June 5, Saratoga Rotary will host 10 Russia professionals and two interpreters in the construction industry. During the visit, they will spend time with 16 companies representing the flow of construction projects in the United States. This includes the financial aspects of construction with the Saratoga National Bank, the city aspects with the city of Saratoga, and, of course, the actual construction process through suppliers and construction firms.

Saratoga Rotary, as the host organization, will supply housing, food and transportation to the many companies being visited. This project is completely in tune with Rotary's international service objectives, President Clinton's speech in the Netherlands and the president's focus on "volunteerism."

John Hoiness
President, Rotary Club of Saratoga

Double standard at SHS is disturbing

As a graduate of Saratoga High School and lifelong resident of Saratoga, I find the increasing double standards that exist at Saratoga High quite disturbing.

In one corner you have a group of seniors who chose to carry on a school tradition by streaking (none of them was totally nude) through the quad. In the other corner, you have over 50 AP students who were caught cheating on their National AP history test. The streakers are banned from graduation ceremonies. Then you decide they can graduate but they can't go to their senior prom or senior beach day, and they have to work at the school for 48 hours. The AP students who cheated get a slap on the wrist and a chance to take their test over again. Excuse me, but am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture? Are you telling these kids that it is OK to cheat on a test? Are those AP scores so important to the school's image that these students don't receive zeros on their test and a permanent mark in their records for cheating?

To make matters worse, in an article in the Falcon, the high school newspaper, your administrators defend the kids who cheated by saying they can understand the kind of pressure they have inside and outside the home, while one teacher says the streakers were openly defiant. I guess I always understood without being told that cheating epitomizes open defiance.

As a parent, I could only hope that, faced with those two choices, my children would choose to streak rather than cheat, which is morally and ethically wrong.

Wake up, Dr. Skelly, start giving punishment where it is deserved, and most of all, start treating all your students at SHS as equals.

PS: I find it quite ironic that you are having a professor from the University of Santa Clara coming to lecture the parents and students on ethics. Maybe the first question he should ask the parents is how many of them are lying about their residency in order for their kids to go to school in Saratoga. Then, perhaps he should ask the administrators why they continue to turn their backs on this problem.

Jeanine Seagraves
Saratoga

There's inconsistency in punishment at SHS

I am appalled at what is taking place at Saratoga High School. First, they have the incident of streaking, wherein, according to your article, the administration failed to notify the parents about the consequences. Next, the school's history class is accused of cheating on its AP exam. A student shared test information with the class that she received from a friend in Singapore, who had already taken the test. Students admitted to discussing the questions and using their books to look up necessary details. This is cheating. These students are being allowed to apply to retake the AP test. The third incident involved a student playing a "prank" on his science teacher (hydrochloric acid in the teacher's water bottle). This student was arrested Friday morning, yet attended the senior ball on Saturday night. After the "streaking" incident, the parents were informed that their children could no longer participate in their graduation ceremonies. Later an alternative punishment was presented: no senior ball (one week before, tough punishment on dates), no Senior Beach Day, and six eight-hour workdays on weekends before graduation (the equivalent of a DUI). Who assigned this punishment? There appears to be a great deal of inconsistency in disbursement of punishments at our local high school. What are the students learning by the mixed messages they are being presented?

Kenneth Johnson
Saratoga

CUSD sponsored bill in secrecy

It is outrageous that the Campbell Union School District, under Superintendent Marcia Plumleigh, uses our tax money to hire a paid lobbyist and take away our right to petition to be in the school district of our city of residence (SB 1258, sponsored by Sen. John Vasconcellos).

A public entity such as a school has no business sponsoring a bill such as this, especially when it is done in secrecy, behind the backs of those who would be affected.

Please protest this breach of trust.

Ellen Marshall
Saratoga

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