Letters to the Editor 06/23/2010

To the Editor:

During this past school year, The Nugget Newspaper did a fantastic job of supporting the SHS Sparrow Club and reporting about our two Sparrows; Holly Davis and Seth Norman.

In early April, I wrote a letter to the editor explaining that we needed community sponsorships for little Holly Davis. To say that our community responded in a huge way to my request and to the needs of these two kids is probably the biggest understatement of the year! Below are a few "numbers" that illustrate the response of our community.

Various fundraisers for Seth, done in conjunction with the Key Club, several staff members, the students from Black Butte School and many others from the community brought in a total of $6,400. The high school fundraised for Holly through several activities, raising approximately $4,000. Sisters Elementary School did a jog-a-thon fundraiser for Holly that kicked in over $2,000. The community sponsorships for Holly in response to my letter in April totaled $2,250. The community of Sisters came together to financially support Holly and Seth with a grand total of $14,650!

But for the Sparrow Club, it is also about students giving back to the community through volunteerism. The elementary students ran, walked or jogged 1,850 miles, which equated to about 462 hours of service, while the SHS students participated with 918 hours of community service for a grand total of 1,380 heartfelt hours served for Holly.

Students from SHS, Sisters Middle School and Black Butte School put in 1,133 hours of community service on behalf of Seth. This means that the young people from all of our schools put in 2,513 hours to better their community and to earn the sponsorship funds for our Sparrows. That is ownership!

The numbers speak volumes about how our community reaches out to each other and to people in need. There is so much goodness and love inside all of those numbers that I cannot put into words the gratitude I feel. I will end by simply saying thank you to everyone who participated! You are all AWESOME!!!

With warmest regards,

Sally Taylor-Pillar

Sparrow Club Advisor

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To the Editor:

As an example of how overpaid teachers are compared to other state employees and the private sector, consider that teachers work 187 days a year, 1,496 hours.

The total days worked for most public employees with a month vacation and 10 paid holidays is 230 days, 1,840 hours. Private employees usually work even more. The average cost per teacher shown in The Nugget two weeks ago of $81,859 divided by 1,496 is about $55 an hour. How many people in the private sector or in other public agencies make that much per hour, even with a master's degree, including benefits?

When annualized using 1,840 hours it equals $101,200 a year. As a CPA I didn't make this kind of money, and my retirement is what I could save out of my earnings, not a big check each month from the state after working only 30 years, not the typical 40 years of most private sector employees.

Teachers could consider the kids first and put a freeze on all salary increases for one or more years. This would solve the problem of reducing positions and increasing class sizes. The money saved could be distributed to the better teachers based on merit. An annual cost-of-living adjustment could be made, but no increases made for pay grade advancement and education until their salaries come closer to what is paid in other sectors of the economy.

If teachers' salaries continue to rise at the rate they have over the past four years, which clearly exceeds inflation, it is likely that sharp reductions in teaching positions will have to be made, and class sizes increased accordingly over the next decade.

Kenneth E. Ehlers