Regarding a March 26 letter to the editor, readers might inappropriately reach the conclusion that if they just eat "right" then they can avoid the unpleasantness of being screened for colon cancer. In fact, it's quite the opposite. If we really want to have an impact on the disease of colon cancer, we'd better stop imagining that fruits and vegetables are the answer. Yes, they may lower the risk but not nearly to the extent that appropriate screening measures would.

It is also important to note that colorectal screening with endoscopy (sigmoidoscopy or colonoscopy) actually does prevent colon cancer since it allows for the removal of polyps that would eventually give rise to invasive cancers. Whereas breast cancer screening may detect cancers at an early stage, colorectal cancer screening achieves the same goal and in addition helps to prevent the development of cancer by removing precancerous polyps.

—Dr. George Fisher, Assistant Professor of Oncology,
Stanford University


It's a spending problem in high school district

The Los Gatos­Saratoga Union High School District does not have a revenue problem—it has a spending problem. According to figures released at a recent school board meeting, the Los Gatos­Saratoga high school district has been in a deficit spending situation since 1999.

From 1999 to 2003, the district budget has grown from $14 million per year to $24 million per year while consuming a $5 million dollar surplus that existed in 1999. Some of these costs are due to raises, maintenance, expensive social engineering programs implemented by the state board of education, and increased health plan costs.

There have been 53 new full-time hires since 1999—22 of these are probationary, hired since 2000, and six new full- and part-time employees were hired just last year. Labor is about 78 percent of the budget for the district. If the budget needs to be pared back, there is no other practical place to do it, as much as one would not like it to be so.

I sympathize with the teachers who may no longer have a job at Los Gatos and Saratoga. Unfortunately, they have a lot of company, with over 100,000 other people in the Bay Area who are in the same boat. (For example, at a meeting of consultant electrical engineers, a contract agency revealed that Bay Area unemployment for that sector is running as high as 70 percent.)

Wearing pink in class shows no class. You can't make the money to pay teachers magically appear by applying enough guilt. If you want to direct your anger and action against a more useful target, it should be against the current state government, which is driving jobs and businesses out of California and stealing local tax revenue. The current ruling party and administration in Sacramento are engaged in a high taxation, high spending, high regulation, and high social engineering agenda that is a toxic environment for business. If you don't have a strong business base, you have nothing to support the tax base and nothing to pay teachers' salaries.

There are short-term actions and long-term actions that must be taken to solve these problems. First, the district budget should be returned to the more sound fiscal policies of pre-1999. The district must make a commitment to sound fiscal policy and hire only the number of teachers it can afford, based on current revenues, not potential future revenue increases. The Bay Area economy is too cyclical to count on future revenues pulling the district out of deficits. The district also needs to resist well-meaning but expensive and distracting social engineering programs that dilute the educational mission of the schools.

Next, the current crop of legislators and the governor have to go for the good of California. What can you say about a state government that, for example, subsidizes students in the community college system who are in this country illegally, using your tax money for in-state resident tuition rates, while at the same time proposing to steal your local basic aid revenues from your local school district? Something is seriously wrong with the priorities of our state government and demands immediate change.

Whatever your party affiliation, California needs sensible fiscal conservatives at the state level. The current batch—with their commitment to high spending, high taxation, high regulation and invasive social engineering—are driving jobs and businesses out of state, and with them the money to pay for teachers and education. It is time to return quality and integrity to educational and fiscal decision-making.

—Ted Kucklick, Parents for Quality and Integrity in Teaching, Los Gatos


Letter writer resorted to 'juvenile behavior'

I write in response to James E. Burke's name-calling missive in the March 19 edition of the Saratoga News. Referring to people who argue against going to war as "whining and sniveling" is another example of the juvenile behavior many people display when they cannot come up with a reasonable, dignified statement.

I have many times heard those who voice their concern or compassion regarding the environment or human welfare labeled and dismissed as "bleeding-heart liberals." This assignation is an impoverished and pathetic replacement for a relevant, significant response—perhaps because there can be no sensible argument against views in favor of preserving our planet's and our people's health. It is particularly inane to accuse of "whining" those who would strive for world peace.

While an antiwar resolution might be unusual for the routine activities of a city council, if every city, or many cities, across the nation were to make such a resolution, it would be a statement of immeasurable importance.

—Jocelyn Kahn, Ravenwood Drive


Math error in story about tax breaks

There is a math error in the article "Owners of historic homes get a tax break" (Saratoga News, March 19). The article states that "the city would lose approximately 60 percent from what it would usually collect ... " As an example, the article shows that the amount for a $1,000,000 property would be reduced from $350 to $210. That reduction is actually only 40 percent; if 60 percent is correct, the new collection amount would be $140.

—Dexter Hermstad, Mellowood Drive


Coyotes present a real danger in Saratoga

They say timing is everything, and your coyote article in the March 28 issue was certainly timely. As a friend and I were walking in our Beauchamps neighborhood at 4:45 p.m. last Thursday, we spotted a coyote on the front lawn of a neighbor's home. It was three houses away from Beauchamps Park, where a soccer team of young children was practicing. In speaking with other neighbors about the sighting, I learned that the coyote has been spotted on numerous occasions coming up from Prospect Creek at the end of our street and has killed at least two cats in the Beauchamps area.

I am concerned that this wild animal is roaming our front yards in broad daylight while small children and pets are about. I have called numerous city, county and state agencies to see what can be done to remove this predator from our neighborhood and was dismayed to learn that the answer is nothing. Most agencies say it's not in their jurisdiction.

Mike Phillip of Santa Clara County Vector Control did come out to investigate, but it seems California passed a law a couple of years ago banning the trapping of such critters, so unless it attacks (or threatens to attack) a human, not much can be done to remove it. I hope no one has to get hurt before it can be eliminated.

In the meantime, I urge all my neighbors, and anyone whose child uses Beauchamps Park, to be wary of this dangerous predator, to stay away from it if sighted (I wasn't too comforted by the article's advice of what to do if it attacks), and to keep all pets indoors. And please don't leave food out for it!

—Nancy Leasia, Beauchamps Lane


City council should stay out of community room

I was dismayed to hear recently that the city council is still looking into using the new library's community room for city council meetings and control it—even after a council meeting at which 15 or 20 citizens expressed their displeasure at the idea and 50 to 100 more applauded their remarks.

I understand that the council will limit city use to four evening meetings a month. What happens when the planning, financial and public safety commissions decide they want to use it, too? A quick count will reveal that there are 20 weeknights a month, and the council and commissions will use 12 of those nights. If they all use the community room, then 60 percent of the evenings are used for city business, leaving 40 percent for community use.

As I thought about this further, I envisioned the huge dais the city council now has in the city theater. Where does it go? Even if it's just the four meetings a month, where is it stored when not in use? If left in the community room it will seriously diminish the amount of space available for the public to attend city council meetings, to say nothing of the amount of space available for community groups.

This is a harebrained idea—not what the citizens of Saratoga voted for with Measure N. They voted for a renovated and enlarged library and community room managed by the county library system.

—T.M. Blaisdell, Junipero Way


Community room is for the community

Somehow our hometown paper completely missed stating the fact that the city council was confronted at the March 19 meeting by 15 committed volunteers (backed by 50 to 60 others in the audience), who spoke in opposition to proposed council administration of the library community room. Why was this not reported? It is a matter of some importance to the many small organizations in the city.

The city council serves Saratoga residents. It should not be dedicated to its own comfort or aggrandizement. Where they meet now is just fine with the rest of us. If it does not suit them, they can adapt the $4.5 million facility they bought on Prospect Avenue, the North Campus Facility. It is unprincipled that they propose to take over the new community (notice the word "community") room in the library. It has served our town perfectly under the previous even-handed administration.

—Fred and Lana Waite, Encina Court

CORRECTION

In the March 19 article on Saratoga High School's Performing Arts and Lecture Center, the dates of contributing restaurants were reversed. Between now and June, Bella Saratoga will donate a portion of its proceeds every Tuesday and the Plumed Horse, every Wednesday, to the PAL Center.