Letters to the Editor 05/02/2007

To the Editor:

As a former chairman of the Sisters School Board, mother of two children who went to Sisters public schools and now grandmother of a child who will attend Sisters public schools, I take a deep interest in the quality of our schools. Good schools are not only good for our children, they are good for our community as well. I feel education is an investment that we make in our future.

We need talented, committed people who will work hard for the good of our public school system to become members of our school board, not people with only a personal agenda. We also need to restore a tone of civility in public debate over school issues.

I am very excited to see that Christine Jones is running for school board. We are very fortunate indeed to have a woman in the community with a strong professional background and academic qualifications who is willing to take on the difficult, time consuming job of serving on the school board.

Chris is no stranger to the process of making public policy. I am sure she will consider all points of view when the board is asked to hammer out fair solutions and balance priorities. She is deeply committed to our public schools and has logged many volunteer hours.

Our school board needs a strong, qualified member like Chris. Please join me in voting for her.

Jean Wells Keenan

•••

To the Editor:

Whether we have kids in school or not, we should all be vitally interested in the outcome of the upcoming school board elections. The quality of our schools is a bellwether for the quality of our community. Great schools make Sisters a very desirable place to live in and to raise families, and they encourage people to invest in their community.

In looking at the slate of school board candidates, I find Christine Jones is one of the best qualified. Her professional experience as an economist dealing with public policy, finance and budgeting issues will be an invaluable asset.

She has been a teacher. She brought her family to Sisters because of its schools and has invested in our schools from the day she arrived - both in the classroom working with teachers and kids and in formal committees working with the administration. She is a modest, quiet person and gets along well with a diversity of people. She will be a team player who has no other agenda than to make sure we have excellence in our schools.

I have endorsed Chris' candidacy because I think she is the kind of leader we would like our school board to have - highly capable and motivated, deeply committed to public schools and very personable. Electing her to the school board would be a signal to everyone that Sisters is serious about its schools and intends to make them the best.

Brad Boyd

•••

To the Editor:

I would like to share my support for Chris Jones, who is currently running for the Sisters School Board, Position No. 3.

I have lived in this community for three years and love it here. We moved specifically because of Sisters' reputation for excellent schools. Chris is one of the first people I met. Her son and my daughter have shared the same teacher two out of the years. Chris immediately introduced herself to me and we discussed a variety of topics, including Sisters School District. It is clear to me that she is a supporter of the district and that she is deeply committed to the children and families in our community.

Chris is an active volunteer within the school. She volunteers regularly and is a face and voice that children know and trust. I am struck by her intelligence, ideas and her call to action when appropriate. She engages generously and intently with parents, staff and children. She is confident in her perspectives and will listen to others with an open mind.

We need such a thoughtful, wise woman's voice speaking for our children on the school board. I am going to vote for Chris; I believe she will be a real contribution to the school district and the community.

Tori Farr

•••

To the Editor:

Jeff Smith is a proven leader on the Sisters School Board and I am voting for him again. He is dedicated to working hard to do what is best for our students. Jeff Smith has the experience, knowledge and personal conviction to do a great job.

Jeff is known throughout the state as an advocate of excellent education. He is well-acquainted with our state legislators. Jeff has also been appointed to a number of statewide advisory bodies for the Oregon School Boards Association. These contacts are invaluable to our schools and community.

The school board elections are a time for citizens to speak up and support the students of Sisters School District. Through your vote, you can help achieve the vision of the district. The hard decisions of electing people to represent the students could not be more vital than now.

With all the recent struggles in our district, now is the time to assure that strong, experienced leaders like Jeff remain on the board. His priority of student centered needs helps focus the board's discussions and vision. Our students need Jeff Smith. He understands the process of education and the big picture to make the right choices. I urge all of the citizens of Sisters to join me in voting for Jeff Smith.

Kelly Powell

•••

To the Editor:

I would like to respond to the letter from Carey Tosello printed in last week's Nugget.

I have not asked the court to force my changes on the school board. To the contrary, I have asked the court to require the Sisters School Board to comply with the record keeping requirements of Oregon public meeting law.

Every citizen has the right to use the courts to require public bodies to comply with Oregon law. Those laws grant a right to the prevailing party to request attorney fees and costs from the public body that is found in violation of the law. In fact, if a court determines that willful violations have occurred, the court can order the individual board members to reimburse the public body for fees and costs awarded to the prevailing party.

These are provisions of Oregon law that the legislature has determined are necessary to insure that average citizens are able to access the legal system to prevent abuse by public bodies. How many people have the money to bring a legal action against a public body or government agency? They have very deep pockets. Absent these provisions, public bodies would drag out the process indefinitely until the citizen seeking compliance with Oregon law is bankrupt. Is that the result you want?

There is no conflict of interest or inconsistency in my actions. I want to change the culture of secrecy. I want the process to be open. I want public oversight, and I want compliance with Oregon law. These are elected officials, and you as a taxpayer have a right to know what they do and why they do it. I am using my time and my money to insure that right is protected for you and all district taxpayers. A thank-you would be appreciated.

Mike Morgan

Candidate for Sisters School Board

•••

To the Editor:

What a difference a week makes. In the April 18 edition of The Nugget, it was stated "With rare exceptions, nobody liked the light green color" of the city hall.

But in the April 25 edition, only 25 percent didn't like the color and 25 percent did (apparently the other 50 percent had their rose colored glasses on). Quite a change in one week.

I'm sure that if this had been a private business, the city would have been all over them to change the color because it wouldn't comply with our "Western theme."

I would be quite surprised if that sickly green color would have adorned any Western building of the 1870s. But using the reasoning that it would cost "us" to repaint it and delay other projects, justifies the city's leaving it the wonderful color that they chose.

Gene Hellickson

•••

To the Editor:

I've heard (and read) with amusement the comments on the color of the new City Hall in Sisters.

In Steve Wilson's Letter to the Editor on April 18, he lamented about the failure of certain businesses in Sisters to conform to the Western theme of the town. After a trip into Sisters to purposely check out the color, I found it to be tasteful and refreshing, and the trim colors were a nice compliment.

While the color may not be to everyone's liking, I challenge Mr. Wilson to find ANYONE who can agree on a paint color. Ask 50 people and you'll get 50 different answers. As for the tourists who flock to this little town and are exposed to the different building colors - I'm sure it doesn't make any difference in where they shop or how much they spend, and I'll bet they aren't basking in the sun at a picnic table, sipping a latté and dissing the color of the building.

I can look beyond a paint color, however, and actually see the structure and design of the building. The City Hall is designed beautifully and is very appropriate in it's Western-themed details. Right next door is the new library which is very contemporary. There's not a paint color in the world that can turn it into a Western theme.

Don't get me wrong, I use the library and it is very functional and attractive and the fact that it doesn't look like a stable or a saloon doesn't stop me from enjoying or appreciating it. My point is when it comes to color, everyone has an opinion. The end result of a building color may not be to everyone's liking, but in the overall scheme of things, we all need to accept color and move on.

There are many more important things going on in the world that warrant more attention than this. The events in our country in the last two weeks will bear that out.

Toni Harding

•••

To the Editor:

Last week, Jake Thomas stated in his letter that he was being "force fed" Intelligent Design theories. I thought I'd let him know that kids in public schools are all being "force fed" (using his wording) the theory of Evolution and a lot of them don't agree with that.

Their complaints are simply disregarded though, so why should anyone pay attention to his argunent or mine for that matter? Nothing will change because the school system would rather not do something that would upset their delicate balance (let's just say it's been upset already, they just choose to ignore that as well).

Personally, I believe that public schools should be teaching a little bit of all the theories out there (unless there are too many, then perhaps they should teach a little of the main ones) and let the students choose which theory they believe. Sounds interesting. Sounds good.

Kaylee Francis

•••

To the Editor:

Three letters published in The Nugget on April 25 deserve further discussion. The first of these, by Ralph Show, relates an apocryphal story about Einstein. A verifiable statement by Einstein on the nature of his belief in God is: "I do not believe in a personal God, and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."

Most of the founding fathers had a similar "deistic" view of God and the reference to "Creator" in the Declaration of Independence reflects this "non-personal" God.

While saying that he wanted to learn about evolution in his biology class, Jake Thomas missed an important point. As a student in the public school system, he does not have the "right" to learn what he wants. There is a prescribed curriculum from which state and local education authorities say he should be taught regardless of whether he approves or not. He may, of course, learn anything else he wants or his parents want, outside the public school system.

Dr. Mark Francis feels that "born-again" Christians have been pushed to the limit by the public school system. Roman Catholics and others have long used private schools to assure getting the kind of education they want for their children. Dr. Francis seems to be claiming there is some sort of special vendetta against his particular kind of Christian.

Most children who have a moral upbringing at home also do not partake in illegal and immoral activities such as those that "have saturated Sisters High School" in Dr. Francis' words. This is true whether their families are "born again Christians," members of other faiths or atheists.

James A. Hammond

•••

To the Editor:

Evolution or Creationism? A big thank you to Tom Bergeron (Letter to the Editor, April 18) for the perfect illustration of turning a mahogany box with a window in it into a television set.

We have two ways to do it. Either use "intelligent design" and buy or build a TV turner or use the "evolutionary scientific method" and throw it into a high mountain lake, let the wind blow and the thunder crash and come back in 200 million years and fish out your TV set.

According to evolution, all life began in the sea, maybe by then it will crawl out on its own. We all see evidence of evolution of species but none for its origin. If you want people to believe in evolution, you need to invent a better story of how it began.

The creation account comes from ancient manuscripts that are over 4,000 years old, that is closer to history than it is religion. The lack of real scientific proof for our origin places evolution more a religion than science. I would rather believe Moses than Darwin.

Ed Beacham

•••

To the Editor:

I have been reading the Bend Bulletin and I see where they are building a seven story hotel. I lived in Bend and graduated high school there. I now live in Missouri. (I would rather live in Oregon). It was a great small town and Sisters was also one of my favorites.

I am hoping that the people in Sisters do not want to ruin their town as Bend has! It is so sad to see the animals not having the space to live because of more houses, and businesses.

Thanks for listening. I am sure there are a lot of people who feel the same way. It always seems to be the big builders from other states that come in and ruin everything.

Sandra Reeves