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Community takes a hard look at Berkeley High 

Find outside experts to resolve BHS problems 

Editor:  

With all of the local recent publicity about Berkeley High School, some positive, but mostly negative, it seems difficult to get an idea of what the main problem is.  

However, with so many people in the community obviously upset over the existing situation and so many changes in recent administrative staff, it almost seems time to bring in a team of experts from the outside and have them put a new plan into action. Can the school administrative team not handle the problems, or do they choose not to handle the problems beyond a certain point? “Band-Aids” won’t work here anymore.  

As we take a look at the looseness around the high school campus, the downtown surrounding area (even during school/class hours), the environmental factors and the academic statistics, one can easily see why the current system is not working well.  

The real question is: who does the administration really fear conflict with by not initiating a badly needed, much more strict policy? The very liberal Berkeley community, which suffers due to this problem or the actual student body itself? You decide, but let’s all hope and work for some positive changes soon, before it gets worse.  

R.J. Williams  

Berkeley 

School Board deserves kudos for new program 

(ed note: the following letter was written before the City Council voted to provide $40,000 to the program.) 

Editor: 

The Berkeley School Board deserves a big round of applause for its recent efforts toward providing a quality education for all of the students at Berkeley High School. It is important that the city also join this effort.  

Of course this is but one piece of the puzzle, but it is significant that over the last few years the Berkeley School Board has also emphasized the early years of school as a foremost area to have our students achieve grade level standards in reading.  

Additionally, programs at the high school in the ninth grade have targeted creating smaller class sizes with continuity in the English and math classes.  

The most recent efforts to improve education in Berkeley are another welcome addition to this developing process. Thanks again.  

Mel Martynn 

Berkeley 

Issel deserves praise for opposition to program 

Editor: 

As parents of a recent Berkeley High graduate, we are writing to praise Shirley Issel for her courageous “nay” vote on the plan proposed by Parents of Children of African Descent for failing freshmen at BHS. We know it was not easy for her to stand alone in resisting pressure tactics when she cares so much about student achievement, but she is right that BHS should not be pouring money into an expensive plan that has not been adequately studied. There are already many valuable BHS programs that lack adequate support. Yes, there is a need to act fast on the problem of failing freshmen, and, yes, it is great that minority parents are getting involved with their children’s education, but PCAD’s plan calls for considerable resources that might be more profitably expended elsewhere. 

Rick Marcus 

Andrea Saltzman 

Berkeley 

Keep tool library well-staffed 

(The Daily Planet received a copy of this address to the council.) 

As city Councilmembers you are well aware of what contentious people your constituents are. We can’t agree on the Beth El project, we can’t agree on 2700 San Pablo, we can’t agree on building heights or daylighting creeks. In fact there is little that doesn’t send some faction down here to complain.  

But tonight I wish to speak to you about something we Berkelyans do agree on - The Tool Library. Users of the Tool Library all agree that at least once Berkeley has gotten something quite right. We are happy there is a place we can go to borrow tools, which many of us couldn’t afford, to help us maintain our homes, our gardens, our bikes. We are novices and pro, young and old, rich and poor - a rainbow coalition of home improvers and hobbyists.  

We are happy with the present staff at the Tool Library. Pete, Adam, Mike and Candida are dispensers of information and goodwill. They know their users and greet them by name. They help us solve our do-it-yourself problems. And while we have been accused of thinking the staff “walks on water,” which is not quite true, we want you and the Library Board to know we are not talking “run the book under the scanner” here. We are talking communication skills, teaching skills and personality.  

With the retirement of Pete, the original “Tool Man,” at the end of the month, there is a position to be filled. We, the Steering Committee, of Friends of the Tool Library, want to be sure that the present staff is considered for increased time, particularly Candida who does not have enough hours to receive benefits. And we want Adam and Mike to have increased hours before any new hiring is done. It is also important that any new staff be compatible with the present staff. The space is small and crowded and at times the lines are long and the patrons restless. Knowledge of tools is certainly important, but communication skills, personality and humor in the face of long lines and harried customers, who just saw the last weedwacker walk out the door when that is what they came for, are more to the point.  

The Tool Library presently generates a tremendous amount of goodwill, to say nothing of good publicity, for the city. People from other towns bemoan the fact that they don’t have one and call ours to find out how to start one. We hope that Pete’s retirement will not in any way change the high quality of service we presently receive at the Tool Library.  

Rosemary Vimont 

Friends of the Tool Library 

Berkeley