Newspapers should build up the community
I’m so tired of The Pinnacle and Free Lance demonstrating over
and over that you are anti-family, anti-business, and
anti-government.
So I ask: what do you stand for?
Don’t you understand that you could use both ‘news’papers to
build our community, maintain (rather than lose) the few/limited
advantages of living in San Benito County, and assist in moving
forward out of a stagnant economy and increasing crime? Or do you
see your role as gleefully deliberately destructive of anyone
daring to work for something positive?
Your
”
news
”
coverage of the proposed Hollister School District parcel tax
was laced with factual errors. Among the worst was that you
”
omitted
”
(declined to report?) that the HSD Board of Trustees adopted a
resolution (i.e. binding policy
– note to reporters and editors) specifying how the parcel tax
revenues would be spent if the measure passed.
There was not a penny for administration, also mentioned in the
TITLE of the measure on the ballot. The budget priority list was
developed by teachers-staff-Board members-parents
”
funding restoration
”
committee, prepared in case the state restored any of the
previously cut funding.
Do you do any research to support your editorials? Your June 17
editorial stating that music is an extracurricular nicety ignores
decades of scientific research documenting that the arts improve
test scores and learning in all subjects.
Perhaps we should put posters around town with photos of the
eight CLOSED elementary and middle school libraries and noting that
the two newspapers worked to keep them closed.
Jennifer Coile,
Hollister
Population growth an issue we can’t ignore
The editorial you printed out about global warming in your May 20 issue was very timely. Especially pertinent was the last paragraph “Global warming is a ticking clock with no loud alarm to wake us up.
Maybe that’s why we seem to be sleeping through it.”
But global warming is not the only major threat we ignore. In the next decade or two the world will experience major shortages of water and food, further destruction of forests and depletion of several vital resources.
And all these problems are worsened by our excessive and ever growing population. We deny the reality of these slow moving trends-slow only in the context of the problems the daily news tells us about.
We must become concerned about the perfect storm about to engulf us!
Only if we wake up soon and get concerned enough to prepare ourselves can the nation’s weather the turmoil ahead.
We have the knowledge and the technology to survive but are we willing to make the effort?
John Blake,
Hollister
Newspapers should build up the community
I’m so tired of The Pinnacle and Free Lance demonstrating over and over that you are anti-family, anti-business, and anti-government.
So I ask: what do you stand for?
Don’t you understand that you could use both ‘news’papers to build our community, maintain (rather than lose) the few/limited advantages of living in San Benito County, and assist in moving forward out of a stagnant economy and increasing crime? Or do you see your role as gleefully deliberately destructive of anyone daring to work for something positive?
Your “news” coverage of the proposed Hollister School District parcel tax was laced with factual errors. Among the worst was that you “omitted” (declined to report?) that the HSD Board of Trustees adopted a resolution (i.e. binding policy – note to reporters and editors) specifying how the parcel tax revenues would be spent if the measure passed.
There was not a penny for administration, also mentioned in the TITLE of the measure on the ballot. The budget priority list was developed by teachers-staff-Board members-parents “funding restoration” committee, prepared in case the state restored any of the previously cut funding.
Do you do any research to support your editorials? Your June 17 editorial stating that music is an extracurricular nicety ignores decades of scientific research documenting that the arts improve test scores and learning in all subjects.
Perhaps we should put posters around town with photos of the eight CLOSED elementary and middle school libraries and noting that the two newspapers worked to keep them closed.
Jennifer Coile,
Hollister
Produce gleaning benefits Community Pantry
My name is Reno May. I am in the San Juan 4-H Club. This year, in part with local farmers, I held my countywide 4-H All Star produce gleaning event. It was my countywide All-Star candidate project. It was on June 12 , 2011 in the fields of San Juan Valley.
Twenty-three youth members and more than 10 parents from most of the 4-H groups in the county showed up for this produce picking and packing event. We went around to crops that have been harvested previously, and gathering the food that the workers leave behind. After we picked the produce, we immediately donated it to the Community Pantry of San Benito County.
I am proud to announce that we picked and packed 800 pounds of produce for the pantry. After the event we came back to my house for a hot dog barbecue.
Each year my local San Juan 4-H group has done a small produce gleaning event in October. This year, I decided to do a larger scale version for the whole county. As part of my project, I was in charge of organizing the event and making sure everything goes according to plan. Each year my group has a lot of fun doing the gleaning, so I wanted to share this experience with the whole county.
It gets kids outdoors and teaches them about food safety, and harvesting crops and focuses also on community needs for food. It seems that everyone had a great time.
Reno May,
San Juan Bautista
Place blame where it is due
Immediately after the defeat of the Hollister School District parcel tax, school board Trustee Joe Navarro regrettably tried to shift the responsibility to the media and to me personally. He is obviously looking for a scapegoat; I’m writing to set the record straight.
Mr. Navarro claimed I wrote in a “large opinion editorial” that school employees were “hauling home fat paychecks.” Actually, it was my regular column and shorter than his letter to the editor. I wrote that most district employees were going to vote yes because they were “hauling home paychecks.” I may be fat, but the word fat was not in my column.
The point was that many of the taxpayers in the district have no paychecks at all and the employees, with Mr. Navarro’s support, had rejected their part of the deficit reduction plan.
I’m not sure that anything anyone might have said would have changed the outcome of the election considering the final vote. Historically, HSD’s certified salary and benefit costs have been way out of line with its income.
Last year the district finally lowered average salaries after almost a decade of overspending. Mr. Navarro deflects criticism for prior events by saying he has only been on the board since December 2010. He fails to mention that he spent a career teaching in the district where, as a self-described activist, he vigorously opposed every attempt to rein in out-of-control personnel costs. He is entitled to his position, but he cannot say he was merely a bystander to the district’s financial woes.
To reduce average salaries the district had to offer early retirement to at least 23 senior employees at the cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars; ironically, Mr. Navarro took advantage of that opportunity for himself. The buyouts will save money in the long-term, but they were not financial sacrifices, they were upfront payments.
When the district proposed the parcel tax, I met with the cuperintendent and the chairman of the “Yes on Measure A Committee” and they presented the district’s deficit reduction plan. The largest single item by far was a $1.9 million item designated as “Other unspecified reductions.” They said they were going to get that from negotiated agreements with the employees.
That would have required the employees to give up $950,000 a year in salary and benefits for only two years – a cut of less than 3 percent – to supplement the total tax input of $5 million spread over four years from an economically strained public.
Obviously, if the district failed to get that agreement or otherwise save the $1.9 million, they would have to squeeze it from programs or divert the new tax revenues to pay existing costs. There are many ways to do that no matter how the ballot measure reads.
I gave the tax plan my conditional support, the condition was that they actually had an agreement to save the $1.9 million before the election. I said I would pay the tax although I was eligible for the senior exemption. The district failed to get the agreement and, therefore, failed to get my support.
Instead of encouraging the employees to make a deal, Mr. Navarro’s reaction, in his May 2011 blog, was, “I cannot blame school employee unions for not wanting to accept pay and benefit cuts.”
If the district did not intend to save that $1.9 million in negotiated agreements why were those ‘savings’ in the adopted plan and where were they going to come from? That is exactly the type of thing that sours the electorate – phantom savings that end up as more deficits and cuts.
Early on, the district’s election advisor conducted a survey that clearly showed a plurality of respondents were very unhappy with both the district’s quality of education and its direction.
Mr. Navarro was well aware of the widespread dissatisfaction, but he blamed the parents as he now blames the media and me. His blog observations of the March 8, 2011 School Board meeting include – “Many of the parents at the meeting were only concerned about their own children, while accusing us of not caring for children…” and “people expressed that they would oppose a parcel tax if they did not get their way…”
Mr. Navarro has chosen to use rhetoric and code words as arguments. I hope he decides that making accusations about political philosophy is not the way to get the district back on its feet. The public wants their children educated not used as pawns in political crusades.
Marty Richman,
Hollister
