•Children robbed of their future •Your dog, your responsibility •Dear mayor • Did you know? • Kudos to Norman Children robbed of their future I still can’t believe it. Who actually suggested the furlough Fridays that have closed the schools?
•Children robbed of their future
•Your dog, your responsibility
•Dear mayor
• Did you know?
• Kudos to Norman
Children robbed of their future
I still can’t believe it. Who actually suggested the furlough Fridays that have closed the schools?
Education is something you just don’t fool with, a school year is a school year, period. The current situation is just not acceptable and shouldn’t be tolerated in the least.
With Hawai‘i having some of the lowest test scores, how could anyone with an IQ higher than a carrot have ever suggested that the schools have less time to teach the kids?
With all the money being thrown around on seemingly useless endeavors, why was education selected as OK to chop away at?
Then, on top of that, they decide it will be every Friday of every week. That is even more insane. That mentality affects every family with children and all the teachers. The DOE (I think) said that the longer kids are away from school the more difficult it is to get them back into a learning mode.
Honestly, when you were young and in school, do you think that two to three weeks more of summer vacation would have left you in worse shape? I don’t think so.
If they had to shorten the school year, wouldn’t it have made more sense to just take the whole time off at once, instead of forcing parents to scramble around looking for an alternative every week for the rest of the year?
They say that children are our future. Well, now the children are being robbed of their future, right? Lingle is saying it wasn’t her doing, huh?
Jack Custer, Lihu‘e
Your dog, your responsibility
Nick, I am sincerely sorry you went through such a “horrible experience” not knowing where your dog was (“Thanks, but no thanks,” Letters, Oct. 31).
But the bottom line is it is your responsibility to keep your dog on your property.
To publicly bash our hard-working humane society for doing their job because you didn’t do your job is lame.
I’m glad you got him back safe.
Gayla McCarthy, Kekaha
Dear mayor
It is hoped that in spite of your busy schedule you have been able to learn of the ongoing controversy between your Ethics Board and your county attorney.
The position is put very well in Walter Lewis’ recent column in The Garden Island where he said “The crux of the matter is that the county attorney has concluded based on his reading of (Charter Section 20.02D) and without any other evidence or rationale that the section’s meaning is ambiguous.” He adds, “When our county attorney commands obedience by his clients (in this case the Board of Ethics) to the legal pronouncements he issues and they are defective or unintelligible, the process fails.”
He concludes, “It is unfortunate and ironic that the current impasse is precluding the board’s performance of its duties stated in the Charter to assure ‘a high standard of integrity and morality in our government service.’”
Regretfully, Mr. Lewis’ statements are vividly true. The proper functioning of our county government is your kuleana and you are respectfully urged to become involved and take the steps within your power to cure the problem that has arisen.
Glenn Mickens, Kapa‘a
Did you know?
Some 70 percent of the blind or those with greatly impaired vision are unemployed — yet the only position on Kaua‘i to teach the vision impaired the skills to be productive is being dropped and the employee fired.
I understand that the state cannot pay out more than it has coming in. I don’t know if the union contract requires layoffs by tenure only. However, somehow it seems that a single population should not be denied at least one representative.
The vision impaired population has knowledge, skill, talent to become valued employees, administrators and volunteers in the work force.
Our teacher, Mr. Glenn Nakagawara, is the enabler and advocate who shows the vision impaired how to fit in and compliment the sighted workforce.
Have the services to the vision impaired been cut statewide? If not, why just Kaua‘i?
On behalf of the blind and vision impaired, I encourage the government/HGEA to work together to reinstate this position.
Betty Bell, Koloa
Kudos to Norman
We just returned from our annual stay at your beautiful island; we’ve been coming for 20 years.
One of the high points of our stay is the greeting we get from the lifeguard at Lydgate, Norman Hunter. He has been there for at least the last 10 years and always greets us with a big hello and glad to you back.
He helps my husband in and out of the water and is always there for us. It wouldn’t be the same without him.
Fred and Betty Jager, Santa Clara, Calif.