Letters: Appreciative letter from an outgoing school trustee

Dear Editor,
I want to thank my friends and supporters, my family and all
those who have supported me over the years, including the community
for having given me the opportunity to serve on the Gilroy School
Board. While I am disappointed that I will no longer continue in my
present role, I leave with a sense of personal satisfaction for the
significant progress our schools are making and the direction that
has been set.
Appreciative letter from an outgoing school trustee

Dear Editor,

I want to thank my friends and supporters, my family and all those who have supported me over the years, including the community for having given me the opportunity to serve on the Gilroy School Board. While I am disappointed that I will no longer continue in my present role, I leave with a sense of personal satisfaction for the significant progress our schools are making and the direction that has been set. I also leave with great admiration and appreciation for the dedication and commitment of the entire Gilroy Unified School District staff.

Since 2000, Gilroy student performance as measured by the California Academic Performance Index, has moved from the bottom 25 percent state ranking to our current ranking in the TOP 33 percent. I attribute this to the districtwide focus and commitment of all staff to continuous improvement and to strong leadership. Additionally, significant progress has been made also in districtwide facilities. Gilroy school facilities have been transformed to much improved quality learning environments that our community can be proud of thanks to the work of many. Now with the success of Measure P, and thanks to campaign volunteers and supporters and Gilroy voters, Gilroy schools will now be in a position to address the overcrowding at Gilroy High and to complete the long needed Christopher High School as well as deal with other overcrowding problems.

I have been honored to serve on the board because our focus is always providing the best education for our students. In this effort, I have reaffirmed the highest respect for our dedicated and hard-working teachers, our vital support staff, our principals and the entire district administration. Additionally, I wish acknowledge the exceptional leadership and commitment of my fellow board members, and our outstanding superintendent, Debbie Flores.

Finally I want to offer my congratulations and best wishes to the newly elected board members Fred Tovar and Mark Good and for the re-election of Rhoda Bress. Regardless of the challenges we face and the adverse impact on funding for our schools, I am confident that new Gilroy School Board will continue the progress to provide the best educational experience for all students.

Jaime Rosso, Gilroy

Beautiful story about a dear person who will be missed

Dear Editor,

I’m writing to tell you how pleased we all were to read Kat Teraji’s beautiful article, and what a thrill it was to see it on the front page. Because it honored our friend Margaret Garza, it meant a lot to us.

To the rest of your readers, I imagine that the article invited them to look at their own lives to see if they could be doing more to make this a better world. I’d guess that all your readers had a good feeling about The Dispatch – glad that you report good news and give us something for which to be grateful.

This kind of reporting is a welcome relief in a culture where a lot of the news is depressing.

Thanks so much.

Diane McGinty, Gilroy

Little diddy about bailout mess and corporate greed

Dear Editor,

They’re going to lay off, 40 city workers in our town

Just another example, of the great economic trickle down

And now that Wall Street, is in a financial distress

They want us working class, to get them out of this mess

They all got into trouble, with their corporate greed

But when their plan somehow did not succeed

They turned to the government, with a desperate plea

But their solution was to ask, for welfare from you and me

All of these experts, geniuses of the high finance

Now have their hands, in the taxpayer’s pants

They keep their bonuses, and their golden parachutes

While we pay the bills, for their spas and fancy suits

It just seems so unfair, that the privileged few

Should be bailed out, by me and you

When the profits were soaring, and fortunes were made

Did the rich investment brokers, make sure we all got paid

If we had gambled and lost our money yesterday

Would we be begging for someone else to pay?

Tom Engebretson, Gilroy

Gavilan College asbestos letter off the mark in numerous ways

Dear Editor,

As the Director of Public Information for Gavilan College, I feel I must comment on the recent letter by Tim Holliday. When renovating older buildings, it is generally expected that asbestos or other issues will emerge in the course of the project.

For that reason a $5.5 million dollar contingency fund was included in Measure E planning. The $230,000 expenditure for asbestos removal did not exhaust the contingency fund. Although asbestos removal was not itemized in the budget for the specific building in which it was found, the overall Measure E budget does account for it. No Measure E project, or any “Staffing, furniture, child care, computers, lab hours, tutors” will be lost (Measure E funds cannot in fact be used for operational expenses.)

While Holliday is correct in noting that the state of California often pays for asbestos removal (as happened at Gavilan College in 1987 when the bulk of non-encapsulated asbestos on campus was removed) halting renovation in order to apply for state funds (particularly in the current budget environment) would have been far more costly than addressing the problem through the contingency fund.

The asbestos removal was done in accordance with California law, by trained and certified asbestos removal specialists. I invite anyone with questions or concerns to call me at (408) 848-4724.

Jan Bernstein Chargin, director, public information,

Gavilan College

Appreciates news being posted to the Dispatch web site quickly

Dear Editor,

Thanks for posting the news on the 13-year-old girl. I think it’s important to know what’s going on in our community. We need to know these things in order to stay safe, even if it is a bad news reality check.

Danette Crewse, Gilroy

Police officers at restaurant for more than an hour? Highly unlikely

Dear Editor,

I read the anonymous Red Phone comments expressing outrage over the alleged watching of a football game at Los Pericos Restaurant on Fifth Street recently by a number of Gilroy police officers. I also read the response by Sgt. Jim Gillio explaining this incident to the phantom observer.

In the Gilroy Dispatch opinion page on Tuesday, Nov. 18, there was a letter written, allegedly by a Tom Morton, who apparently decided to come out of the Red Phone coward’s closet to add credibility to his alleged observation. A couple of things raise suspicions as to the existence of Tom Morton. If he really was concerned about the safety of Gilroy and the inappropriate actions of their police officers, why didn’t he just call the police department and ask to talk to the watch commander or even the chief. Perhaps “he” was more interested in embarrassing the police department.

He writes that it was definitely three police officers and they were witnessed by him and three other people “for well over an hour.” I don’t believe this person even exists fueled partly by the fact that I spent quite a while googling Tom Morton. I found no such person. That doesn’t mean he isn’t real, but in this day and age almost everybody has a digital footprint. My educated guess is that he is a person who does not like law enforcement and is using the media to disparage the good officers of the Gilroy Police Department.

I have no reason to doubt Sgt. Gillio’s account of that incident yet every reason to doubt Tom Morton and his fellow observers.

First, it is rare when a single officer can complete his meal without a radio call interrupting their break. It is almost impossible for there to be three officer’s in the same place for 30 minutes except when they are on the scene of a major accident, gang shooting or in training. The Gilroy Police Department is an exceptionally professional organization that has a new but talented police chief, the best since I moved here in 1989. I have been self employed for the last 26 years but I also have a background in law enforcement. It is a great job, but it is very challenging. It is dangerous, unpredictable and at times pure drudgery and is often unappreciated and political. It is incredibly difficult on marriages and children.

This town is fortunate to have the caliber of officer’s it does. Whether you are calling in a prowler near your house or being annoyed by a bum at Starbuck’s, officers will respond quickly even if it means they have to leave a half eaten meal at Los Pericos.

Earlier this year one of GPD’s officers was nearly killed by a career felon, saved only by the fact that the semi-automatic pistol being wielded by the criminal jammed. When is the last time Tom Morton and his three friends encountered that kind of situation in the course of their workday?

In a recent drive-by shooting on the east side of Gilroy, officer’s made a quick arrest of the shooter not because they were at the local donut shop, but because they were very proactive in protecting us in an increasingly dangerous community. A simple, thank you officer for a job well done might be nice.

Mark A. Zappa, Gilroy

The Golden Quill is awarded occasionally for a well-written letter.