Re: Security upped at Gibbs High after incident, Feb. 22.
I was terribly upset when I read your article in the Neighborhood Times about Gibbs High School. I have taught at Gibbs for 11 years, and I can assure you that the safety of our students, faculty and staff is a high priority at our school. Had your staff writer done any research on the problems in our high schools, she would have found that all of our schools are experiencing their own set of issues. Gibbs is no worse than any other high school. We have a wonderfully dedicated faculty and staff that work very hard.
It must be noted, however, that the loss of an administrative position due to financial cutbacks in most of our high schools has made our jobs more difficult.
I would hope that this article does not keep parents from considering Gibbs as a viable choice for their sons' or daughters' high school education.
-- Mary L. Diamond, St. Petersburg
Reinvest money spent on busing
Re: School budget may face big cuts, Feb. 26.
The Pinellas County School Board should not place the blame for its budget crisis solely on soaring health care costs and the class size amendment.
Rather, the board and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund should accept some of the responsibility for this crisis. In 1999, the Pinellas County School Board and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund negotiated to end court-ordered busing that had been in effect since 1971. Rather than reaching an agreement that would finally allow African-American children the chance to attend their neighborhood schools and keep traditional zoning, it was decided that controlled school choice was necessary.
The controlled school choice plan dictates children must apply to attend a school in their area and hope that through preferences and a lottery process, they receive their first-choice school. The irony of this situation is that now more children than ever are being bused around Pinellas County and African-American students are being bused past brand-new schools in their neighborhoods in order to achieve racial balance throughout the county. Isn't it time to end the struggle for racial balance and instead work to provide equity in every school?
This plan has diverted millions of dollars that should have been used to increase teacher salaries and reduce class sizes. Money that should be used to improve our schools and help to provide equity of resources is now being spent on bus companies, petroleum companies and special administrators.
Before the School Board asks to increase our property tax, I ask its members to disclose how much of its budget is being spent on school choice. How much is this county wasting on transportation costs? The transportation budget was increased nearly $10-million by some accounts. That money could raise many teachers' salaries. And finally, how has busing our children around this county improved their educational experiences? I suppose it has increased their knowledge of the geography of this county as many children now spend 90 minutes to 2 hours commuting to school.
-- Laura E. Hanis, Tarpon Springs
Sacrifices of school choice inexcusable
Re: A tough choice for top students, Feb. 18.
Donna Winchester's article brings to light in a most superb manner a growing trend in the Pinellas County school system, that is: punishment of the students whom the system is supposed to be serving. Students who, in most cases and especially this one, have nothing more than the primary desire to express their creative, artistic and intellectual abilities.
Being a recent graduate of Lakewood High School, I speak based primarily on experiences, but also on eyewitness accounts and published news reports.
The St. Petersburg Collegiate Charter High School is quite possibly the best educational opportunity ever afforded to a Pinellas County high school student. By attending this school, a student has the opportunity to receive a standard high school diploma, as well as an associate in arts degree from St. Petersburg College.
According to the article, students who expressed an interest in learning more about this exciting opportunity attended one of several informational sessions held on behalf of the school, where parents asked if students applying to this school would lose their seats in magnet programs.
At the time, the answer was no. Now we learn that the leaders who gave this information are retracting it based on an existing Pinellas County School Board rule, in effect to prevent "magnet hopping," a rule which in itself is ridiculous and full of flaws. This is demonstrated by board member Linda Lerner's willingness to investigate the rule as it affects charter schools. Telling students that if they express interest in attending another school, thus applying to SPCCHS, they will have to give up their seats at their current schools, is not only wrong, but it's inexcusable.
My concern lies in the fact that it appears as if the Pinellas County School Board is looking to punish Pinellas high school students who have already demonstrated their creative, artistic and intellectual abilities by denying them the same open opportunities it affords other Pinellas County high school students.
In a period where "school choice" is preached just as much as FCAT standards, it's my opinion that all students should be afforded the equal opportunity to choose to attend this school, without the fear of losing their seat in a school that they already chose to attend.
We are at a crossroads in educational achievement. Pinellas County is a model school system that displays qualities unlike those of any other school system in the state of Florida, and the United States for that matter. If we put rules in effect that cause students to fear choosing a school, then we lose our credibility.
I urge the board to consider the credibility of the school system, and student achievement first above any rule that is plagued with flaws and haphazardly entangles students in a web of fear.
-- William F. "Will" Young, III, St. Petersburg
Jill Nelson's advice carried her talks
I commend St. Petersburg College for the fine programs presented last week as a part of the Silverberg Grant Program. I first heard the speaker, author Jill Nelson, at the St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading. I thank you for that opportunity. Then I read her books and was even more impressed.
When I read that she was returning for a lecture series at the college, I was very pleased. As a former faculty member at St. Petersburg Junior College and a retired associate professor from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, I count this author's message to students and faculty a breath of fresh air.
Her book, Straight, No Chaser, could help all young people better understand growing up in this society. And while her first novel, Sexual Healing, may attract readers because of the title, it's a beautiful story of real friendship. Most reports of her talks at the college focused on her politics. While that is an important issue today, it is her challenge to students, faculty, and everyone "to stand up for what is important to you and for what you believe," that should be loudest in our memory.
-- Rose Walton, Treasure Island
[Last modified March 3, 2004, 01:45:07]
