Letters to the Editor, Sept. 21, 2011

Schools need to refocus

I received a phone call and a memo from East Middle School yesterday afternoon saying due to budget cuts they will no longer be providing ESS before school.  After reading all the articles in your paper in regards to Collins High School and the issues that the school is having, I started to wonder if the school board is cutting other schools’ funding in our district because they have to make up for all the mistakes at Collins. I became highly upset and started seeing red.

Why should my child have to suffer because of Shelby County’s School Board’s inappropriate and rash decision making when it comes to building a multimillion-dollar school and athletic facility?  I cannot believe that our school board would cut funding for the children at other schools when this program was used daily and has been very helpful.

ESS not only provided parents a place for their children to get help in their studies but also provided us a place to drop our children off early when we are required to be at work long before the bus would arrive. It helped give us parents a piece of mind, and we knew that our children are safe inside the school walls and getting the extra help they need and deserve.

Aren’t our children entitled to the education and extra help they deserve and not to be victims of the foolish mistakes of the school board?! The school board needs to put their priorities in order and realize that this great high school they built is a disaster and they need to put their focus back into the education of our children and doing what is right for them.  

Stephanie Ledford
Shelbyville

Schools’ challenges

I want everyone to know that students and educators in Shelby County's schools are grateful every day for the support that Shelby County's citizens give to its children. We also want to invite everyone to attend meetings of the school board. You are most welcome, and there is always a place on the agenda for you. If you attend a few meetings, you will see the challenges the schools face, the efforts being made to overcome those challenges and the great successes that our young people achieve that deserve to be celebrated.

Sam Hinkle

Chair, Shelby County School Board

Bypass, field: Shoddy oversight

This time last year, our community was discussing the shoddy workmanship of the bypass. It was a situation in which the construction company had apparently low standards, while government inspectors did not inspect the workmanship until the very end.

Politicians seemed to avoid responsibility, instead expressing relief that the problems were correctable. Those of us who travel the bumpy bypass are aware that the problems were not fully correctible, and that we have had to settle for less.

The hard work of the taxpayers who funded the bypass was not honored.
Now there is discussion in the community about the shoddy workmanship of the Collins football field. Government officials have responded by emphasizing the good aspects of the new high school, but once again, no one seems to accept responsibility for shoddy workmanship.

Inadequate funding was mentioned as a factor, an argument that carries little weight when one considers the problem of government waste.

In the field of medicine, which is still largely driven by the private sector, there is layer upon layer of peer review to keep the quality of medicine high. But in government, there appears to be no such quality control. Instead, we have shoddy workmanship, avoidance of responsibility and lack of respect for the taxpayer.

And those who brought us the bypass and the football field are the people who will manage our national health-care system.

Dr. Terry Hagan

Shelbyville

A 9-11 survivor story

I would like to share this story with my friends. Coming home on a ship last year, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet one of the firefighters that went into one of the buildings on 9-11 to help people escape down the fire escape stairs. He said it was horrific. The steps were so crowded, and people were not able to move very fast, sometime at a standstill. He was on the outside of the hand rails trying to keep controlled movement. He lost his footing and fell two floors down to concrete. He broke many bones in his legs and feet, other bones in his body and had internal injuries. He was still able to pull himself to the outside. Once outside, the last thing he remembered was seeing part of the plane that struck the building. He spent many months recuperating in a hospital and another facility. I remember how hard it was to listen to him share this story.

The last part of his story is he now has MS. I think of him often and realize this is just one of many, many tragedies that happened that day. Please remember and pray for the survivors and families on this terrible day. We need to be thankful every day for what we have.

Betty Curtsinger

Clay Village