Letters to the Editor

School budget cuts

Desires and necessity in budget cuts

The education altering budget debates are upon us. In thinking about the terrible financial abyss looming, I tried to remember back to when the ground rules were originally stated that everything was on the table. Everything to me means everything. During a recent bit of repartee regarding Room 9/Journey and Home Education programs, it was indicated by someone within the official Shoreline educational hierarchy that we simply need to have this kind of alternative education route. Why? Says who? Where is it written on stone tablets? Especially while contemplating the elimination of multiple, traditional elementary schools during financial Armageddon? Why are the needs and desires of historical school communities less than that of alternative programs that serve far less families? Don’t be fooled by their planned, stealthy move elsewhere. They would still draw from the resource pool that really isn’t a pool anymore.

Does the squeakiest wheel simply get the largest share of the grease?

If so, we’ve found 95 people that want our very own different kind of alternative education in Shoreline. Can we just have it, please? Because we say we desire it. Necessary? That is another question. The mother of invention has stopped bearing children or even courageous and novel ideas in this case, much to the chagrin of Plato. Now I doubt and wonder whether it was just a tiny, little bit of a fib that truly everything was on the table as we were told?

Raymond Koelling

Lake Forest Park

Everyone should protest closures

Evan Smith’s comments of Friday, Jan. 26, that parents need to accept cuts and not protest the proposed closing of North City and Sunset schools is short sighted. We are asking the most vulnerable members of our community, our children, to bear the burdens of the Shoreline school board’s bad fiscal decisions. Why is closing schools the first resort before any other cost saving measures are tried? There is no proof that closing these schools will save the dollars needed.

Also, every neighbor, real estate agent, business and property owner in Shoreline should be protesting as loudly as the parents. The immediate plans for the closed schools is to leave them vacant in case they are needed in the future. A rundown school in any area is not good for property values or a community’s image. Considering that the school district is one of the reasons that young families settle in our area, leaving schools empty and in ill repair will ultimately have the opposite effect.

Finally, although the DACPO process was to be transparent and fair, much of the data is not available for public view, meetings were held behind closed doors and public comment was not welcome at many of the meetings.

Full disclosure and all other cost saving measures needs to occur before any of the parents will ever accept the closures.

Mary A. Sierchio

Shoreline

Option presented by Smith has historic roots

Evan Smith’s recent column about closing the middle schools has a historic foundation. For generations students matriculated from eighth grade to high school. In our current situation the benefits for the students would be that there would be about 10 schools where opportunities for leadership would occur on the student council. Additionally, the older students could assist with tutoring younger students as has been done historically in schools which could not afford teacher’s aides. The older students could learn compassion for the younger students who share their hallways. Younger students could learn from these older students when they themselves do not have older siblings.

The parents could benefit by having their student remain in the neighborhood school. This solution would lessen the necessity for re-districting because the students would remain in their feeder schools.

Financially, we would accomplish the goal of closing two schools. Smith has already mentioned the potential savings in transportation costs.

As a student, I attended schools that were first-through-eighth grade. There was no public kindergarten back in the “dark ages.” I am sure that a K-8 would work equally well. The history for this is about 1850 to 1950, so I’m pretty sure it would work. My grandmother would say “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” We as a district feel that we are being skinned so we might as well look at all the options.

La Nita Jordan Wacker

Shoreline

Self-sustainability

It pays to grow your own vegetables

As food prices escalate faster than incomes increase, there are solutions that each of us can utilized. Vegetables can be grown in gardens, both in front and back yards and in various sizes of containers. Salad stuff, such as spinach, chard, green onions, radishes are easily grown, and can soon be planted to yield a bountiful harvest. Tomatoes do well planted in 5-gallon containers. Vegetable gardens thrive here, especially with amended soil. Last year I grew all salad stuff, plus brussels sprouts, cauliflower, celery, beets and carrots, tomatoes and several varieties of squash with little more effort than planting seeds and watering regularly, saving me a considerable sum.

Fruit trees also do well in this area, especially peaches and nectarines, Asian and European pears and plums, although apples present more problems. Many fruit trees will bear fruit within the first year of planting if they are bought when several years old from a reliable nursery. There are several in north King County and south Snohomish County.

For apartment and condo dwellers there is a possibility of pea patches. Seattle has many neighborhood pea patches for which demand and use is very high. Shoreline and Lake Forest Park have places where pea patches can be developed. But even decks allow for container gardening.

So the next time you groan over increasing vegetable and fruit prices, start investing in adequate containers, seeds, plants and trees. Now is the time to plan and to talk with nursery folk. The rewards of growing our own vegetables and fruits goes well beyond saving money at the grocery store.

Virginia M. Paulsen

Shoreline