Features

LEADERSHIP GAP 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I read with interest Matt Artz’s coverage of the deferred accountability at Berkeley High’s Attendance Office (“Berkeley High Gets Tough on Chronic Absentees,” Daily Planet, March 5-8). Surely any operating procedure that results in $116,399 in lost funds in a single year—not to mention the 30 years of Director Doran’s involvement with the district and BHS, during which time truancy has been a “hot issue of debate”—deserves greater effort to resolve the contentions of the various stakeholders.  

Mr. Johnson, as student director, is of course a latecomer to the table, and his concerns about student satisfaction and equity must be answered head-on. BHS leadership on the issue, however, can be regarded as far too little and far too late: When Mr. Doran proclaims that there are “consequences for truant students” and unflinchingly describes the attendance rules as “never mandatory or enforced,” it is clear that there is a leadership gap at BHS. 

The community—the entire BHS staff and student body included—is entitled to the wisdom of the district and of the principal, especially in the wake of 30 years of failure to reach consensus. When seven administrators and 150 teachers cannot reach an adequate response to the current challenge, it is customary to allocate the principal’s direction to break the deadlock, or to allocate the principal’s salary to offset the operating loss. 

I look forward to Mr. Artz’s efforts to bring to light the district’s response to the students and to the resident dogmatics who currently believe that any consequence for truancy is a punitive one, that classroom instruction is somehow “not relevant” to students with academic performance in the top 25 percent of their class, or that students who are fortunate enough to have the supportive advocacy of a parent or guardian will be exempted from whatever Solomonic wisdom emerges from the current debate 

The district’s decorated leadership continues to turn up its nose at each $10 per day per student attendance offered by the California Department of Education, yet remains willing to bring this core civic institution not only to the brink of bankruptcy, but to add BUSD to a nationwide list of public agencies losing their accreditation and thereby their entire reason for existence. 

James Tharp 

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FERRY TERMINAL 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks to Matt Artz for taking the time last Saturday to cover the Gilman Corridor design charrette, sponsored by Berkeley Design Advocates (“Gilman Street on the Faultline of Development Wars,” Daily Planet, March 9-11).  

However, I’d like to correct his description of my position on the location of a future Berkeley/Albany ferry terminal. I’m delighted that the recent passage of Regional Measure 2 will provide funding to make a Berkeley/Albany ferry possible. However, I don’t, at this point, favor any particular site for its terminal. The next step for us all is to thoroughly study all aspects of the various potential sites through a comprehensive, site-specific EIR, in the normal way of all major projects. Only then can the best site, and the one most likely to succeed, be identified. We need to do it right this time. 

Linda Perry 

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GILMAN CORRIDOR 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Thanks for your March 9 article reporting on the Gilman Corridor planning charrette organized by Berkeley Design Advocates. On behalf of BDA I’d like to express our thanks for the Daily Planet’s coverage. At the same time I’d like to clarify BDA’s purpose and role in sponsoring the charrette. 

BDA does not have a plan for the Gilman Corridor. But we recognize that change on both sides of the Berkeley/Albany border has impacted the Gilman neighborhood. We believe that neither the neighborhood nor Berkeley as a whole are well-served by ignoring these events. Our purpose in conducting the Gilman Corridor charrette was not to choose a best alternative for Gilman’s future but rather to bring these developments to public attention and to help all Berkeleyans begin to think about and discuss the corridor’s future in an informed and thoughtful manner. 

I’d also like to correct the Planet’s description of Berkeley Design Advocates as a “trade group” of design professionals. We are a community organization whose membership is open to all persons who are concerned about thoughtful planning, sound environmental design and improvement of the Berkeley environment. Our membership includes both design professionals and interested citizens of all stripes. For 20 years BDA has served as an independent voice about Berkeley design and planning issues, seeking to improve our built environment through public education, lively debate, thoughtful commentary and informed criticism.  

John Blankenship 

Chair, BDA Steering Committee 

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CALL FOR FREER PRESS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

We are missing a balanced discussion of Cuba in the mainstream press. The recent tightening of measures which oppose traveling to Cuba is one example.  

Licenses of hundreds of organizations whose members have traveled under the congressionally mandated people-to-people trips have been revoked or not renewed. The Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and “Send a Piana to Havana,” founded by former Berkeley resident Ben Treuhaft, are among them. The Piana people will no longer be allowed to send donated and refurbished pianos to Cuban schools and churches and to contribute to a workshop for piano tuners. Why? 

In the mainstream media reports and articles about the recent situation in Haiti we have not seen any mention of the fact that for the last five years Cuba has had a medical team in Haiti (including 332 doctors) who has saved an estimated 86,000 lives. Cuba is also giving technical assistance to Haiti’s agriculture and a radio-based literacy program and other (not military) aid.  

All these facts are available on the Internet. However, to avoid being criticized as being mere propaganda agents for the government, our daily papers and TV news should also present investigative reports on these subjects. 

Lenore Veltfort 

East Bay Women’s Internal League of Peace and Freedom 

Oakland 

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NEW BUSES 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I am writing to say that I, and many other riders, do not like these new AC Transit buses and have written them about it. They are very hard on the elderly and disabled. 

1. There aren’t as many seats, as 90 percent of the time you’re standing. 

2. There’s no railing to hold on to when getting on and off. 

3. You have to push a button to open the door. 

4. They have bucket seats and are high up. 

5. When you get off, it’s a very high step. 

6. Between the high step and lack of a railing, you just pray you don’t fall! 

Everyone I’ve talked to about this feels the same way about these buses. We all wish that AC Transit would sell these and use whatever money they get for them to fix up the others! 

Janis O. Brien 

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DANGEROUS INTERSECTION 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What does it take to get something done to improve an intersection in Berkeley that has far too many accidents? Tonight there was yet another bad crash at the corner of Hearst and Oxford streets, this time involving three cars. Too often I’ve heard the horrible sound of screeching brakes and crumpling metal, called 911, only to observe the same scenario repeat and repeat. It’s a terribly designed intersection. How many more accidents do there have to be before there are life-saving changes made? At any one moment there are cars, buses, bicyclists and pedestrians, simultaneously crossing, turning left and right, making U-turns and accelerating down hills across a wide and widely used intersection. There are no left turn lights. There are double left turn lanes with cars on a collision course towards others making U-turns. Motorists making right turns are not always given the right of way, and people making left turns are not clear which lane they’re turning into. It’s a mess. Please print the statistics of how many accidents have occurred there in the past few years to increase public awareness and to help get immediate improvements made before more people get hurt. 

Susan Archuletta 

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REDEFINING MARRIAGE 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Marriage is under attack. People are trying to redefine marriage, and in the process lowering the moral fiber of our community. Marriage is all about family values. Marriage is designed to celebrate the creation of children to pass on our genetics to following generations. George Bush has called for a constitutional amendment to codify marriage as between a man and a woman. This is a good start, but let’s not stop there. There are other couples who are using marriage to gain legal status without furthering family values. We need to extend the marriage constitutional amendment to exclude these couples: Those not planning on having children, those with an infertile member, senior couples incapable of having children. The best amendment would not allow anyone to marry until they have children. Couples could only be engaged when the woman becomes pregnant, and if there is a miscarriage or a death in childbirth, no marriage! Call your senators and congressional representatives now and demand they not pass Bush’s weak amendment, but rather demand a real marriage amendment. Join your local chapter of Special People Envisioning Real Marriages and Everyone Gets Grandkids (SPERM & EGG). 

Lee Amosslee 

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WEBSTER SAYS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

Anyone who is confused about the meaning of “marriage” should look it up in the dictionary. The three I have at home define it as the union of a man and a woman as husband and wife. No religious or political arguments necessary. I trust Webster to define terms, not people with their own agendas. 

Glen Jordan 

El Cerrito 

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THOMAS JEFFERSON 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

I want to take issue with some of Ms. Talley-Hughes’ points in her hit piece on Thomas Jefferson (“Thomas Jefferson: A Man of His Time?”, Daily Planet, March 9-11). His wealth: Yes, he was well off in a system that relied on slaves. His wealth enabled him to be a leader in the noblest political experiment in human history, and deserves credit for inserting ideas into the Declaration of Independence that would enable future generations to abolish slavery. And because so much of his energy and attention went to these public service activities, he neglected his personal wealth and business, and died over $1,000,000 in debt. That was a lot of money in those days. There’s real danger in applying political correctitude to people who lived centuries ago. Does Ms. Talley-Hughes drive an internal combustion auto? If her home was raided and searched, would we find products made by slave labor in China, or sweatshops of Mexico or Indonesia? There are alternatives to these products. Two hundred years from now people might see these as “crimes” worthy of severe condemnation. Is the fine point that she doesn’t actually own these workers, just supports the system that keeps them in this situation? And let’s keep in mind that Berkeley has at least one school named for a convicted felon. 

Dick Bagwell 

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GAY MARRIAGE? 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

What will happen if we allow gays to marry? Will there be more gays or lesbians? No, because we can’t turn straights into gays, nor gays into straights. A lot of effort has been expended by clergy and psychiatrists trying to make gays straights. It doesn’t work, and not allowing them marriage is undemocratic. 

Encouraging gays to marry promotes their mental and physical health. Monogamy among both straights and gays helps fight AIDS and other STDs, which are more prevalent among singles that married people. Loving married couples, whether the same sex or hetero, take care of each other, thus relieving a burden on society. Even under the best of circumstances, it’s tough being gay in our intolerant society. Choosing to change from hetero to homosexual is not a choice. Gays and Lesbians are part of America’s fabulous diversity, They are entitled to the same rights as the rest of our citizens. 

Gay marriage will prove helpful, not harmful to society; then, hopefully, our fear and prejudice will gradually fall away. So let’s support San Francisco Assemblyman Mark Leno, who is sponsoring the same-sex marriage bill AB1967. 

Deena Andrews 

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MALCOLM X FLOODS 

Editors, Daily Planet: 

As someone who as actually had the responsibility of keeping the drains at Malcolm X open, I just had to go back and take a look. It’s plain to see, the recent remodeling extended the building and added an enormous amount of concrete, thereby magnifying rain runoff. The newly extended west side of the school runs over 70 yards, much of it below grade, and all the additional runoff drains into pre-existing seven tiny holes, each the size of soda cans, which drains from the school, under the building and sidewalk, depositing water on the west side. During the floods, 32 inches of water pooled in the new amphitheater, causing a heavy wood desk to float. The city drain Bruce Wicinnas blamed is uphill from the school. It’s BUSD’s downhill drains that could not handle this much water. 

The recent floods at Malcolm X Elementary School highlight a fundamental problem with Berkeley Unified’s administrators. Many are not qualified to do the work. The smart thing would have been to have replaced the antiquated drains while doing the extensive Measure A remodeling. However, the Director of Facilities, Lew Jones, didn’t do that. He oversees our multi-million dollar school construction program, and his training is as a journeyman carpenter. 

Current Director of Maintenance Rhonda Bacot started out as a painter. Her solution was to try and find someone in the District who had expertise and knowledge, a civil engineer. Given BUSD’s slow financial system, hiring anyone is a lengthy process. Two months wasn’t enough time to hire an outside consultant and have that consultant actually do some work. One simple stopgap action would have been to install ejector pumps or sump pumps, which unfortunately didn’t occur. 

These are well-intentioned people, but they’re not qualified to do the job. School Baord members have mouthed words “accountability,” but up to now, have failed to implement it. School Board members can enact accountability by hiring experienced, and well-qualified administrators who have a proven ability to providing high quality competent services. 

Sally Reyes, Former BUSD maintenance employee