Letters to the Editors

School's out: It's time for teachers to struggle financially

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 11, 2001

This month ends the school year for not only the students of Pinellas County, but also the teachers. For many teachers this begins 10 financially frightening weeks with no pay.

One real example of this comes from my school. The end of the school year is being celebrated by a luncheon costing $15 per teacher. Not one, but many teachers will not be able to attend because of this cost. Pretty sad, huh? To think that these professionals, some with many years of experience, will not be able to afford this is outrageous. However, this is just one example of the effects of the low teacher salary in Florida.

For many teachers, summer vacation means a struggle to pay bills because teachers do not receive paychecks during this time. Therefore, a luncheon of this sort is completely out of their budget.

More teachers are leaving every year because of retirement or changing fields, and fewer college students are choosing teaching as a profession. We are not only facing a water crisis here in Pinellas County, but we are also facing a teacher crisis.

I have been a teacher for 25 years, and I have never felt such anxiety and frustration among my peers. Teachers are tired of hearing glorified promises from politicians that salaries will be improving.

Wake up, America. Water and energy shortages will not be the only crisis you will be facing in the near future.
-- Janice Amburgy, Clearwater

Let's focus more on learning and teachers, less on FCAT scores

Re: Let teachers, not lawmakers, promote pupils, letter, May 28.

What a great letter. We have three children, in 11th grade, third grade and second grade.

Our second-grader had a great deal of difficulty in first grade with reading and comprehension, and we had her tutored, sent to summer school and gave her extensive help at home. She was still struggling, and my husband and I wanted to hold her back.

The school said no because she wasn't eligible. What that really meant was that it would affect their 'A' rating.

I sympathize with the principals and the teachers, but all of this emphasis on test scores, FCAT, etc., is not good.

We should worry that we are graduating children who cannot spell and have no reading comprehension at all. I think the legislators should see that we need to put the funds into helping our children be able to read and comprehend what they are reading, not worrying about scores. We need to put the dollars into keeping our teachers up to date with salaries in the commercial market so that we have good teachers to help our children.
-- Gail Kosmalski, Palm Harbor

Lend a hand and help pick up litter to keep our parks clean

Another holiday weekend has passed and our parks were crowded with happy people spending time in the sun.

I chose to stay away from Fort De Soto Park, my favorite park, on Memorial Day weekend. However, I was very disturbed when I arrived there early Tuesday to absorb the beauty of the north beach area. Although the crew there was working hard to clean up after the holiday slobs, who think that littering is acceptable, I could not relax. I had to start picking up the leftovers that marred the landscape.

Litterbugs don't know how to use garbage cans and they represent the sick society that wants to destroy our environment. Do we need to limit the number of people who can use popular parks each day? Something has to happen to keep control of our beautiful environment.

Everyone has to be humble enough to bend and retrieve anything that belongs in the trash container in any of our parks. Be a good walker and also a good bender. Carry a plastic bag as you walk. You can use a sandwich bag as a glove to pick up trash. Adopt a park -- or if you own a boat, an island -- and make sure it retains the natural beauty.

As I leave for my vacation to hike in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, I hope concerned residents of Pinellas County will work harder to keep the environment acceptable. It is interesting that in hiking mountain trails for over 40 years, I have never seen any litter that disturbs the beauty of the mountains. Why is this happening in our beautiful parks?
-- Lendall Haskell, Largo

Evening parking fees turn 'free' dance at Pier 60 pricey

On a Sunday night I went to a "free" dance at Clearwater's Pier 60. Not having been there since parking meters were removed, I was surprised my car was funneled into the Pier 60 lot before I could read the charges.

The sign said $2 an hour, but since it was 5:30, I thought we wouldn't have to pay. We spent three hours at the dance and were shocked when we left that there was an attendant to collect $6.

I never heard of paying for parking on a Sunday night except in garages. I live near the National Seashore in Cape Cod in summer. They charge $8 a day for parking, but it's free after 4:30. I am not afraid of the beach roundabout -- the Cape has many -- but I will not go to another function on the beach if I don't have a parking permit. How many more visitors will Clearwater drive away?
-- Priscilla A. Morrison, Clearwater

6 lanes of McMullen-Booth are impossible to cross in 7 seconds

Earlier this spring I had mechanical problems with my car. It was parked near Enterprise Road and Landmark Drive in Clearwater. As I had friends sitting in a restaurant at the nearby strip mall, I started to walk there.

I went to the pedestrian walk light on McMullen-Booth Road at Enterprise and pushed it. After a long time, the walk light came on. The cars stopped, so I crossed the first three lanes and then the walk light flashed "Don't Walk." Six lanes of traffic revved their engines and started up.

I kept walking. Since every first car in each lane saw me crossing, I assumed that they would let me finish crossing the road. Not so. I walked briskly across the remaining lanes with cars and trucks missing me by inches. I felt the heat of the engines and the breeze from their movement and my heart was pounding in my chest. One car stopped traffic on the sixth lane, or I would not be here to write this.

The following day I spoke to the man in the Clearwater traffic division office in reference to that walk light. He was very rude and said that light was set correctly at seven seconds to cross six lanes of traffic.

People wonder why so many pedestrians are killed on McMullen-Booth Road and U.S. 19. Is this one reason?
-- A.M.M. Locker, Safety Harbor

End grinding crashes on U.S. 19 by cutting speed limit to 45 mph

Quick fix for U.S. 19:

Follow the lead of Pasco County. Drop the speed limit to 45 mph all the way through the trouble zones and enforce with possible heavy fines and loss of license. A few fender-benders, but no grinding crashes.

Problem solved.
-- Jim Smith, Clearwater

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