I take exception to Gary Rummelhoff's comments in the July 14 issue of the Willow Glen Resident that San Jose Unified School District has closed the achievement gap between higher-performing schools and lower-performing schools.

One need only look at the data to realize that the school district has not improved the achievement gap, but instead has made it worse over the last eight years.

Many of the district schools are under state sanctions because of their poor API and AYP scores. Ten elementary schools, three middle schools and three high schools have API scores below 650.

Will Mr. Rummelhoff do a better job at the county level than at the district level? For all the kids' sake, I sure hope so.

Bob Mulvany

Willow Glen

Negative response to
card deck is no shock

Your recent article on Kathy Eder in the July 8 issue of the Willow Glen Resident mentioned twice the "hate mail" she received after issuing her deck of "Bush Cards" that netted her $250,000. I certainly admire her entrepreneurial spirit; however, did she really consider her playing deck "love cards?"

Willy Fonda

San Jose

The Willow Glen Resident was honored in the California Newspapers Publishers Association 2003 Better Newspapers Contest.

At the awards ceremony, held in Southern California on July 17, the Resident was named a Blue Ribbon Finalist in the editorial cartoon category for a June 11, 2003, cartoon by Steven DeCinzo. The Willow Glen Resident competed with other newspapers in the 11,001­25,000 non-daily circulation division.

"Our goal each and every week is to produce the highest quality community newspapers possible within our economic model. It is not to win awards," said David Cohen, publisher of Silicon Valley Community Newspapers, parent company of the Resident. "The fact that we are recognized by our fellow journalists for our efforts is certainly gratifying and reaffirms that we are fulfilling our mission. I'm proud of our editorial department."

Honors awarded to the Resident's sister newspapers in their respective circulation divisions were: Los Gatos Weekly-Times, first place photo essay, second place editorial pages, Blue Ribbon Finalist general excellence, editorial comment and page layout & design; Saratoga News, first place sports story, second place writing, Blue Ribbon Finalist photo essay, feature photo and editorial cartoon; Almaden Resident, first place editorial cartoon, Blue Ribbon Finalist sports coverage and sports photo; Rose Garden Resident, first place editorial cartoon; Cupertino Courier, Blue Ribbon Finalist business for financial story.