City Hall Raises Way Over The Top, and Is This Really a Recruitment Issue?

Dear Editor,
With these huge salary hikes, I certainly don’t want to see any
increases in garbage, water or any other city services for several
years. If the city has this much money to give employees, it should
have enough in reserve to cover droughts, etc.
City Hall Raises Way Over The Top, and Is This Really a Recruitment Issue?

Dear Editor,

With these huge salary hikes, I certainly don’t want to see any increases in garbage, water or any other city services for several years. If the city has this much money to give employees, it should have enough in reserve to cover droughts, etc.

The average employer gives 3 percent increases. This is vastly over that. Seems this is a pyramid scheme that could go on for years. What a way to give City Administrator Jay Baksa yet another raise!

I attended the City Council meeting and agreed with Mr. Craig Gartman entirely. I do not believe it is a recruitment issue at all. Employees have options … take the job or not.

Debbie Bradshaw, Gilroy

Band Teacher Blew It, and the Newspaper Took the Wrong Position Backing Him

Dear Editor,

I am dismayed that the Dispatch editorial board came out to publicly support the decision by Brownell Band Director Tom Brozene to cancel the long-planned trip to Disneyland.

I have been a Brownell parent for six years, all three of my children were involved in band and all three have gone on the Disneyland trip.

As a band parent, I have written numerous grants in support of the Brownell Band. I concur with the Dispatch view that Mr. Brozene is a dedicated and talented teacher. However, he made a number of mistakes in deciding to cancel the hotel reservations and the trip without any forewarning to the entire band and their parents who have already paid for half the trip and now stand to lose their deposits.

Band is indeed a team endeavor. However, he never warned the 47 members of the team who are in good academic standing that they were responsible to make sure that the six team members who were not attaining the minimum GPA get their grades up. He never checked after the first semester to make sure that all students were performing up to par or met with parents to let them know that the trip might be in jeopardy.

In my view, it is the responsibility of those few students and their parents to work a little harder in order to be able to be academically eligible to go on the trip. That is not one of my daughter’s responsibilities. In the past six years at Brownell, none of my children were told that they needed to be monitoring the grades of their fellow students. If this is a new band rule, than informing students of that fact should be mandatory.

The manner in which Mr. Brozene decided to cancel this trip showed a complete lack of thoughtfulness. He sent a letter home with the kids, after he had already cancelled the hotel reservations and before sitting down and speaking with Principal Joe Di Salvo. Even now, the band students are getting mixed messages as to whether or not they will be going on this hard-earned trip.

At the beginning of the school year, I gave my eighth-grade daughter the choice of going on the Washington D.C. trip or going on the Disneyland trip. Much to my surprise, she chose the Disneyland trip. She has worked hard and has earned this trip, like the vast majority of her fellow band members. As a parent, and as a school board member, I vow to make sure that she and her fellow dedicated musicians will indeed be going to Disneyland this May.

Denise Apuzzo, Gilroy