• Angering all the people all at once
• Go organic
Angering all the people all at once
The following is testimony we submitted to the state Board of Education meeting held on Oct. 1:
Among the many problems generated by the recent furlough decision, we want to point out the chaos and conflict that now exist as a result of your decision to end the school year on May 26, 2010. Ending the school year earlier in the spring already meant difficulties scheduling and participating in AP exams, national competitions such as the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Mock Trial, and a variety of sporting events. With the furlough days now scheduled on May 7 and 14, 2010, what was problematic may now be impossible.
As the parents of a 10th grader at Kaua‘i High School, we urge you to revisit that calendar decision in an attempt to minimize the considerable damage that is now resulting from the furlough schedule. By starting next school year later in the summer, rather than ending this school year earlier in the spring, some of that mess can be avoided.
Furthermore, we propose that as many furlough days as possible be bundled and scheduled in August before the start of school. This way, teachers will be available to teach summer school and to attend professional development activities, many of which are offered in late July and August on the Mainland. In addition, academically motivated students will be able to attend enrichment programs, many of which are also offered in late July and into August.
Bundling the furlough days will also make it easier for teachers and high school students to get summer employment. With the furlough days scattered, it is much harder to arrange child care, pick up paying work, attend resume enhancing programs and maintain classroom momentum.
Superintendent Hamamoto is on the record as saying furlough days can’t be bundled because, according to the Honolulu Advertiser of Sept. 19, 2009, edition, “teachers have to work a certain number of days a month to qualify for benefits.” If that is the case, the scattered furlough days jeopardize the months in which the furloughs are scheduled. Her comment seems to support the case for bundling the furlough days rather than contradicting it.
Gov. Lingle’s goal is to get all the government workers on a four-day work week, which is facilitated by the scattered furloughs.
The money will still be saved by bundling them, with less harm done to teachers, students and parents. In addition, if schools are going to have to stay open anyway on those Fridays, the savings are not nearly as great as the governor had hoped, lessening the advantage of scattering the furloughs. The four-day work week may be good for budget cuts, but it’s not good for educating our students: Why have the DOE and BOE lost sight of their mandate?
The board’s recent vote to end school earlier in the spring was an effort to elongate the summer break so that more schools can offer summer school. By bundling the furlough days at the end of the summer break, teachers can teach summer school (benefiting students and supplementing teachers’ incomes) and still be able to participate in professional development programs later in the summer. Perhaps even more summer sessions could be offered with a greater variety of subjects.
We think bundling the days and adding them to the end of the summer break is the way to make the best of a disastrous situation. Revising the school calendar will improve things even more.
It is often said that you can’t please all of the people all of the time. As things stand now, however, we have proved it is possible to anger all of the people all at once.
Wendy and Jim Hoglen, Kalaheo
Go organic
People are always asking me “How are your bees doing?”
I always answer truthfully, “They are doing just fine busy making honey; it’s a good year, lots of pollen, nectar and no mites on Kaua‘i.”
We stay far away from corn companies and their poisonous pesticides that can kill bees. We lost 24 colonies when tasseling corn was sprayed near a bee yard in Hanapepe Valley.
Just read an interesting article in Australasian Beekeeper. German beekeepers are accusing a chemical manufacturer of marketing dangerous pesticides and thereby causing mass death of bees all over the world. German, French and American beekeepers lost thousands of hives after poisoning by the pesticides clothianidin and imidacloprid which are exported to more than 120 countries. Both substances can get into pollen and nectar and can damage beneficial insects like honeybees.
The use of imidacloprid and clothianidin coincided with the occurrence of large-scale bee deaths in Europe and America. Up to 70 percent of all hives have been affected. As I said, we keep our bees far away from corn fields and their poisonous sprays and GMO experiments.
Kaua‘i is a great place for honey bees to gather nectar and pollen with abundant flowering native plants and fruit trees, flowers, nuts, vegetables and herbs. Please do not spray toxic chemicals on flowering plants. We should build up our soil by fertilizing with balanced compost and recycle our waste products and return them to the earth which feeds us.
Everything good comes from our creator; sunshine, pure air, water, land and pure food promote energy, joy and health. We need to stop using poisonous herbicides and pesticides that cause sickness, disease and death.
The companies that manufacture these products are only interested profit. The junk food that is produced from agribusiness is responsible for the rise in obesity, diabetes, cancer, leukemia, tooth decay. The use of toxic substances is at the root of what makes us sick.
The spraying of poisonous pesticides and herbicides around our schools, homes and neighborhoods and the corn and sugar companies must be discontinued so we can all have clean air, water and food to eat.
I hope you will all start your own organic garden.
Kawika Moke, Kekaha
