May I suggest a partial solution to the financial maladies confronting our schools and teachers as outlined in the front-page article and your editorial, "Leave teachers alone—look elsewhere for cuts" (March 12)?

You accurately bemoan having to layoff our valued teaches due to the reduction in state funding. In this county of only 15 cities, we have 37 school districts. Each district has a superintendent and staff of half a dozen or so deputies all pulling down six-figure incomes. Add to that other staff bureaucrats and the cost of maintaining a district building, and you have identified a small fortune that could be saved without laying off a single classroom teacher.

You are correct in asking for cost effective measures that would not diminish the education of our youngsters in the least but would add to efficiencies. Let's consider having one city, one district. Why, for example, is my town of Saratoga encumbered by six school districts within its borders?

Our Silicon Valley leaders and legislators are surely bright enough to realign our county into 22 fewer school districts, save the taxpayer tens of millions of dollars and enhance education by laying off districts, not teachers.

—Donald L. Wolfe, Big Basin Way


Letters 'whine and snivel' on decision

I commend the Saratoga City Council for not adopting an antiwar resolution. In my opinion such resolutions are outside of the scope of the responsibility of the Council. After reading letters to the Saratoga News wanting the Council to deal with the "war issue" I discovered a common feature to these letters: whining and sniveling. One letter snivels about Santa Clara County's "need for federal assistance now" (instead of federal spending on weapons) but neglects real cause (total fiscal mismanagement by our state government). Another letter whined about the real aims of the U.S., i.e., "acquisition and world domination." A more recent letter whines and snivels about the U.S. showing "contempt for the international community." Based on these letters I initially concluded, in order to stop this nonsense, the council should pass a resolution declaring Saratoga to be a whining- and sniveling-free zone. Since this might violate free speech rights, I finally concluded that the council should pass a resolution establishing an annual Saratoga whining and sniveling festival. At this festival a winning whine, a winning snivel and a winning whine and snivel combination would be determined. These winners could be immortalized by DeCinzo cartoons.

—James E. Burke, Angus Court


Tests don't 'prevent'cancer, but foods do

Your article about colon cancer repeated a common fallacy in saying "the disease is 90 percent preventable with the timely use of colorectal cancer screening tests." Testing does not prevent anything, only detects harm that has already occurred. While tests are helpful, it would do the public a greater service to emphasize the only real action people can take to significantly reduce their cancer risks. Studies have consistently confirmed that the best way to guard against colorectal and many other cancers is a plant-based diet rich in fruits and vegetables. The protective effects of such a diet cannot be obtained by taking vitamin pills or other shortcuts, and just adding a bit of broccoli to a meat-centered meal will not cut it either.

It is sad that organizations like the American Cancer Society continue to leave people under the illusion that testing is the best effort they can make towards cancer prevention when there is so much they can do to avoid this fearsome scourge.

—Fay Knight, Glasgow Drive


Inaccuracies in McDole article

The article "Planning OKs McDole expansion," published on Feb. 26, contained several inaccuracies that I would greatly appreciate your correcting.

* There are many more than three two-story homes in the El Quito Park tract. At a planning department hearing in September 2000, the count given for the tract was one in every 14 homes. There are four of them adjacent to my Paseo Presada property alone. A planning commissioner at the hearing stated that the tract was too heavy on two-story homes. (Note: Most of the lots are a quarter-acre, with ample expansion room at ground level.)

* The quote attributed to me about my loss of views was taken completely out of context. At the Feb. 12 hearing, I said that the McDole two-story project didn't directly affect me since I live a street over. I said that my reason for appearing was due to fear that approval of the proposed project may pave the way for more in the tract. My comment about the loss of my views was in response to a comment made by a planning department staff member to a neighbor that "you have no views in your tract" (therefore complaints about loss of views had no validity). I said that I disagreed with that opinion, since the views that I once had through my home's windows of beautiful sunrises, sunsets and the mountains have been pretty much obliterated by adjacent two-stories that were not previously there.

Comments made by planning commissioners at the Feb. 12 hearing ("The tract will eventually catch on to the two-story trend," "It's a wave of the future") seem to bear out my fears of more El Quito two-stories in the future.

—Adele Hirose, Paseo Presada

In the article "Rotary working to eradicate polio worldwide," in the March 5 issue of the Saratoga News, the polio committee chairwoman's name was misspelled. Her name is Lillian Barna

In the March 12 Saratoga News, the second half of the story titled "Meetings convince board to call another meeting," about the West Valley­Mission Community College District, was inadvertently omitted. The complete article can be found at http://www.svcn.com/archives/saratoganews/20030312/sn-news2.shtml.