Hang together to solidify District 719

To the editor:

These are the lessons/questions that resonate with me as we close out the 2007-2008 school year and look to our district’s future:When we work together we accomplish great things. This year’s PTC Carnival, Laker Athletic Booster Club’s (LABC) community clean up day, PLHS’s production of “Grease,” Middle School’s Variety Show, PLHS’s Knowledge Bowl Team taking second at state, the PLHS’s wrestling team at state, a balance budget for fiscal year 2007-2008 to name just a few.

Our community ultimately pays more emotionally and financially when we do not trust and support our elected officials’ decisions. We might view our elected officials as referees in our district – when they make a decision it should be final. Keep in mind, we have seven board members contributing to that final decision.

Sometimes individuals are elected to school boards and/or any elected positions that are not necessarily best suited for the role.  Remember Jesse? The good he may have done was overshadowed by his behavior in office.

Employees, public figures who mistakenly/jokingly say the wrong things in ear shot of a bystander risk losing their jobs. Just ask any of the Presidential candidates’ staff members.

Advocating for our beliefs is easier than admitting our mistakes.Great leaders are rarely recognized in our presence. They are more likely to be crucified.Our community works hard to support our respective special interest groups but we struggle to work together to pass a referendum that would benefit us all (Don’t have children? – think property values!).

Many of us think we have the answers to our district’s problems, but how much time have we really invested in attending district meetings to understand if our solutions are realistic in the environment our district operates in today. (State funding is needed, but when will we see the dollars?)

What are the “basics” in education today? How much has the cost of education increased due to federal and state mandates? What questions should have been asked on the district’s survey regarding the referendum? What is the magical dollar amount for a referendum to pass in our community? These are not easy questions to answer as we all have our own opinions. Unless we are willing to step up and serve on a committee and/or provide input during the district’s open forms, requests for information (“Letters to the Editor” would suggest we are more reactive than proactive), we might consider putting our confidence in the School Board we elected to debate and resolve these matters.

I, personally, have been stuck this past year on Benjamin Franklin’s comments at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Sue Heaton

Prior Lake

 Comcast helps families in need

To the editor:

Community Action Council’s two Lewis House safe homes are a necessary haven for families escaping domestic violence. My hope is that one day, the need for our Lewis Houses will no longer exist – that all families in our community will live in homes that are safe, filled with loving and nurturing people. Until that day arrives, I am grateful for the support of Comcast and the volunteers they provided last Saturday for Comcast’s annual Comcast Cares Day.

Both Lewis House locations received the benefit of Comcast employees and their families as they converged at each site to perform painting and gardening, and to help make the shelter feel like a home for the families that rely on our services in their most difficult times.

Places like CAC’s Lewis House couldn’t support our community without the dedication and caring of companies like Comcast and their employees. I just want to say “Thank you!” to everyone who helped for all of their work.

Mary Ajax

President/CEO

Community Action Council – Lewis House 

Be responsible for your child

To the editor:

I was utterly amazed at the author of the editorial “Longer walks aren’t safe.” The mindset of this individual to think that it is the school system’s responsibility to get her children to school and back is ludicrous.

If you are concerned about strangers approaching your child, then do your parental obligation and transport them yourself. The statement “I really don’t think that it is the school’s right to risk the welfare of our children” reeks of the rebuttal “Is this not the responsibility of a parent?”I

 applaud the fiscal responsibility of the legislature and school systems in weeding out non-essentials within the budget (including transportation). Whereas I support quality education for our children, tax dollars should start when the children arrive at school and end when they leave the building. The fact that some parents choose to both work or some single-parent families may have conflicts does not default this responsibility to “society” to raise their children. Let’s get back to the basics…parental responsibility!

Randy Steenholdt

Savage

 Buesgens’ story doesn’t add up

To the editor:

Rep. Mark Buesgens confessed in last week’s Savage Pacer his property tax delinquency alluding to tax complexities. Rep. Buesgens is a “self-employed,” “business management” professional when not in St. Paul representing this area. He wrote that “recently … we were informed, contrary to what we both remember being told, that the property taxes on an investment property were not being escrowed.”

According to county records, Rep. Buesgens’ St. Paul “investment property” was purchased in August 2006 and the payment due May 15, 2007 was not tendered. Somebody paid the tax (received October 16, 2007 by Ramsey County) with an 8 percent overage -- equal to the late payment penalty for not paying in May suggesting that somebody had knowledge of the delinquent payment. I am confused how you, Rep. Buesgens and Sara, do not remember that somebody paid the October 2007 payment including a penalty if it was not escrowed.

Tom Rees

New Market Township 

Chris Lind paints different picture

To the editor:

The facts in Chris Lind’s letter to the editor (May 10, Savage Pacer) give a different picture than what has been presented by Superintendent Tom Westerhaus and Human Resources Director Tony Massaros.

The “child/student” whose parent complained about Chris’ abstinence conversation turned out to be neither a child nor a student. Chris was reprimanded anyway. Could the parent have had “special connections” with which to exert pressure? That would be an abuse of power.

The Jan. 3 reprimand was a result of the janitor’s complaint about a conversation of which he wasn’t even a participant, except as an eavesdropper. The reprimand included the stipulation that “These conversations about abstinence, which Chris could not have with students, include conversations both on and off school district property as well as conversations both during and outside of your work hours.”

Would any of us not consider that an abuse of an employer’s power? Would any of us not take legal action to correct this injustice? Would any of us not contemplate standing up for our First Amendment rights? How could education authorities, the usual bastions of freedom of speech rights, so arrogantly trample on Chris’ rights to speak freely, especially in non-employment arenas? It’s truly appalling.

That a June 2006 nominee for PLHS paraprofessional of the year could, two months later, be reprimanded for a conversation about abstinence is testimony to the rise of a secularism that pervades most of our institutions. Christians are welcomed and applauded for their good deeds, but they must remain silent about their value system that produces those deeds or be hounded out of their jobs. If a Christian imagines that the rights and freedoms that the Constitution grants to secularists extend to him, we can observe that they don’t, at least not without a fight.

Chris has decided that a fight over this injustice would be harmful to the district and to his family. To sacrifice one’s rights in the interest of what’s best for others is at the core of the Christian value system. To forgive in the face of great injustice is also a core Christian value. The good character of Chris Lind, visible now to the larger Prior Lake-Savage Area School District public, is obviously what attracted those students to him as they were seeking answers to life’s questions (presumably not found by them in the Secularist halls of education).

The current and future students of PLHS are the poorer for the loss.

Lynn Madison

Prior Lake

 

Send message to big oil companies

To the editor:

Let’s make this Memorial Day weekend a memorable one for the big oil companies.

Be at your destination for the weekend and have your shopping done on Friday night, turn off that ignition and don’t start it again until time for work on Tuesday. All you boaters and bikers from sea to shining sea and lakes and rivers in between, help us out. United we stand. Don’t even start your lawnmowers. If staying home, get all your “honey do” projects done, spruce up your yard, get finished all those things you’ve been meaning to do and help the rest of America obtain lower gas prices, thereby lowering the price of food, etc.

This is a grassroots effort. Please pass it along to your family, friends and neighbors. Together we will count; Americans have the will and can-do spirit. Each of us has to do our part, starting with us little guys in America. Again, let’s make it one memorable weekend for the oil companies. Happy Memorial Day. Together, we can do it.

Bob and Joanne Henry

Prior Lake