Friday’s Letters to the Editor

Split the school district

EDITOR: March 10 was a sad day for communities on the Russian River. The West County Union High School District board voted to consolidate El Molino and Analy high schools, despite intense division among stakeholders and viable alternatives. Consolidation closes El Molino and forces its students to attend Analy: 550 teenagers and families will experience the challenges of attending a new school in fall 2021, as the stress of COVID-19 lingers.

What troubles me most about consolidation is that the El Molino region provides the majority of the parcel tax dollars funding the school district. El Molino’s constituents have been unified in voice to keep El Molino open — it has served the community well. The board ignored our voices. Consolidation continues a long pattern of prioritizing investment in Analy.

West county can support a high school for 550 students. Rural areas across California support schools that size. The equitable solution is for the district to be dissolved. Numbers indicate that El Molino could stand financially independent under a basic aid model. West county high schools need to be redistricted using a process that is equitable, inclusive and data driven, not consolidated in a rushed and biased process.

KAT DEANER

Forestville

A healthy reminder

EDITOR: Saturday’s editorial expressed a perfectly understandable call for the removal of security fences from around the recently embattled symbolic seats of American government (“Take down the razor wire at the people’s buildings”). I say, not so fast.

In March 2020, my son and I were days away from a visit to D.C., Congress and the White House before the pandemic delayed a lifetime dream. So I get it. These are the American people’s houses.

In my life I have been taught that there is both unhealthy and healthy shame. I suggest that the fences and added security serve as a healthy reminder of the national shame brought about on Jan. 6 by the recently ousted administration, its supporters in Congress and the dark forces in our society unleashed by the dangerous rhetoric of the past four years. Many of those folks would love to see the reminder of their actions removed from the public consciousness, so they politicize the fences.

American culture sometimes prefers a short attention span. The current conditions in Washington and their symbolism are an important page in the story of the democracy experiment. It is at our peril, that too soon, we sweep away the lessons learned.

VON RADKE

Santa Rosa

Stand up to hatred

EDITOR: Rohnert Park Councilwoman Jackie Elward has my full support in dealing with these racist outbursts (“Vice mayor highlights racist outburst,” Wednesday). No one in America should be subject to insults or violence due to their race. Look at the news: Asian women killed in Atlanta shootings. Every American needs to stand up against this hatred and intolerance, or it will erode our free society.

JON YATABE

Bodega Bay

Avoiding scam calls

EDITOR: Bob Proctor is concerned about scam phone calls (“Scam calls run amok,” Letters, March 13). I urge him not to answer his phone unless he recognizes the caller. If everybody would do that, the scammers would soon disappear. This seems to me to be a better (and cheaper) solution instead of passing more laws, which would accomplish what exactly?

JOHN SCHWIRTZ

Santa Rosa

Say no to testing

EDITOR: Your March 7 editorial was titled “Test students to assess learning loss from pandemic.” The second sentence led with the words, “As schools stagger back …” So, the recommendation is to assess students as they stagger back to school after fires and almost a school year on Zoom?

With the multiple traumas that we know have affected students and the challenges that many families have faced this past year, do we really think we are going to get an accurate assessment of academic losses?

Are we going to add to the trauma that students have experienced by welcoming them back to school and then jumping into the pressure of state testing and trying to make up for lost time?

I would hope schools would spend the few weeks before the end of the school year putting students’ mental health before test scores. Yes, in-house assessments and teacher observations will be important to make the necessary adjustments to curriculums and programs. I suspect that teachers already have a good idea of what their students know and are able to do.

No student should have to face a standardized test when they return to school based on what they have all just experienced.

CIE CARY

Sebastopol

Honoring service

EDITOR: March is designated as Women’s History Month and also Military Women’s History Month.It honors historic figures from Deborah Sampson, who served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, and Clara Barton, who served as a nurse during the Civil War, to Dr. Olivia Hooker, the first African American woman to join the Coast Guard, Sgt. Mary Castro, the first Hispanic woman to join the WAAC during World War II, and Capt. Kristen Griest, who became the first female infantry officer in 2016.

There are many of us, among you in the community, still serving, supporting our sister and brother veterans, also volunteering in many facets throughout the community. So, to my sisters who have served from World War II to the present, thank you for serving and all you continue to do to contribute to your country.

ROSE K. NOWAK

President, Military Women Across the Nation, Redwood Empire Unit

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.