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Letters
District's shortfall raises questions
An article in the July 18 issue of the Saratoga News reported that the Saratoga Union School District had authorized the sale of certificates of participation (COP) for $7.6 million to provide additional funds for the district's Measure D Modernization Project. This subject provokes numerous questions, the following being just a few:
* In a Jan. 31 article, the Saratoga News quoted the district as projecting a $6 million shortfall in funds for the modernization project as the result of the exhaustion of state matching funds and the inflation of construction costs.
Why does it now take $7.6 million in new COP funding to complete the project?
* According to the state office of public school construction, the district has established its eligibility for a total of $7.21 million in state matching funds and has received $2,761,000 of that total. Thus, the district has yet to receive $4,449,000 for which it is eligible, funds which are not available because the district did not submit its applications before the state funds were exhausted.
Why do "district officials hope to get $5 million from the state ... " if the district is only eligible for $4,449,000?
Am I just quibbling about half a million as if that amounted to real money?
Is half a million close enough in modern math?
* $250,000 of the additional COP funding is for "administrative costs."
What are these costs, and why are they so high?
* There is considerable uncertainty as to which items in the original plans approved by the district's board of trustees are no longer included in the modernization project and how the new certificates of participation funds might change this. For example, on March 14, 2000, the board approved plans for the Argonaut School that included the addition of nine classrooms. The Measure D Bond Oversight Committee, however, has recently disclosed that, at the completion of the project, neither the planned four-classroom or three-classroom building will have been built. This will leave Argonaut with two fewer classrooms for grades 1-5 than it had at the beginning of the project and three fewer than it had during the 2000-2001 school year and, according to the committee, two of its classrooms will still be modular (portable) units.
Will the additional COP funding correct this?
What are the current plans for each of the campuses?
What effect has the new COP funding had on these plans?
What in the original plans the board approved has been removed or modified?
* The only new construction the voters authorized by their approval of Measure D was "additional classrooms to alleviate overcrowding." It is now understood that the district intended from the very beginning to include new administration buildings and new multi-purpose buildings in its plans for the modernization project; however, for some reason the district neglected to disclose those intentions to the voters. Now, because of the "shortfall," it seems that the district, rather than drop its plans to build unauthorized new administration buildings and multi-purpose buildings, has instead dropped its plans to build the authorized new classrooms.
How does the district justify this?
How does the new COP funding affect the district's plans?
How does the cost of the unauthorized new facilities compare to the "shortfall" or the new COP funding?
How does the reduced number of classrooms square with the demographic projections of increased enrollment?
How soon should the voters be expecting the district to ask them to approve another bond measure for additional classrooms?
Wesley I. Ferguson
Chateau Drive
Hate is definitely a learned behavior
The people writing to the paper on the topic of whether homosexuality is genetic are not experts in science. Each side of the argument gets their information from different sources. Each viewpoint agrees 100 percent with their own sources, and looks with complete disdain at the other side's leaflets, rule-books, radio shows, or what have you. This part of the argument will never be solved in the Saratoga News.
What remains clear, however, is that one component of this issue is unquestionably learned behavior. Know what it is? Hate.
Hate is learned. Prejudice is learned. Intolerance is learned. The desire to restrict others' free exercise of their rights is learned. Nastiness is learned.
And these things can definitely be worked on.
William Lorton
SHS Alumnus 1988
No discrimination at tax-funded schools
Mr. Lorton's letter in the Aug. 8 issue of the Saratoga News, states: "Speaking out against intolerance is not 'more intolerance.' "I suppose that depends on what you say, when, where and how you say it. Calling Ms. Hocker a Nazi, KKK, accusing her of wanting genocide, being "hysterical," "removed from reality," and having "feverish sexual paranoia," is obviously intolerant. Verbal abuse is not appropriate at school.
As for "homophobia is the last form of acceptable discrimination," the formation of the Gay and Straight Alliance (GSA) club with the open support of the administration, teachers and a majority of students proves that is just not so at SHS.
The GSA controversy isn't really about "homophobia." It's about whether or not GSA supporters have the right to verbally abuse the religious at school because they don't like their religion, and they think religious bigotry promotes gay rights. Can any be intolerant to "oppose" intolerance?--not at a school.
The 14th Amendment's equal protection clause means that if any one has the right to nondiscrimination at school, all do. Anti-religious bigotry violates the club's own anti-discrimination goals as well as the school's anti-discrimination policy, in addition to its "embrace diversity" ideals.
Hopefully we can agree SHS should be a place where all, regardless of their race, religion or beliefs about homosexuality, feel equally welcome and safe. All--and that includes gays as well as the religious--have equal rights to nondiscrimination at a tax-funded school. Like it or not, that's the law.
Teri Jones
Riesling Court
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
