Segregating Community

Thank you for your article highlighting the Santa Rosa City School Board's proposed plan to move the Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts kindergarten and first-grade classes to the Doyle Elementary School campus ("Charting the Path," Jan. 19). As a parent of a second grader at SRCSA, I have reservations about this proposal. The plan was put forth as a way to combat the issue of a high wait list at SRCSA and although well intended, it fails to take into account how SRCSA will be affected by this type of growth. It also threatens to split the campus which would eliminate the K8 model that was a draw for many parents. The parents and students who have worked hard over the years to cultivate a thriving community at SRCSA deserve a plan that will enhance the arts charter, small school experience, not break it apart.

Instead of trying to fit as many children as possible into SRCSA, thereby splitting the school and changing the currently thriving model, parents are urging the board to slow down. Let's take a moment to plan for the future and consider taking the working model of SRCSA and duplicating it in whole at the Doyle School campus, allowing even more students to participate in this great program.

If this were a mere case of two entire schools trying to work through the snags of sharing one campus, as the article seems to suggest, I doubt that so many SRCSA parents would be as upset. As it stands, this proposal fragments one school community and segregates the other.

Stacy King

Santa Rosa

Cutting Back Salaries

Kudos to Kevin Russell for bringing up a good point ("Trickle-Up Economics," Jan. 19) and making us aware of why our country is in such a bad way. What if our politicians cut back on their salaries to help our economy instead of giving themselves raises while our country is in bad shape. Oh wait, that's too much to ask. Let's cut back on the funding for our schools instead. Their pockets are more important than the American people—at least that's how I'm feeling right now. I have little faith in our politicians, and I continue to vote because it gives me the right to bitch.

Mike Shea

Santa Rosa

Fast DSL, SLow Support

Interesting article on Sonic.net ("Sonic Boom," Jan. 12). Last night I called for tech support. It took almost an hour to reach anyone. This was around 8pm. Sonic is already losing its local touch and its efficient, highly intelligent tech reputation that characterized it as one of the best ISPs.

Sheri M.

Petaluma

Into the Unknown

Ronald Bailey's recent feature on E.T.s seemed well-researched and presented balanced viewpoints on both extraterrestrial civilizations and UFOs—both, because the E.T. debate has two camps, one being the objective scientific observer/astronomer, and the other being the UFO-logist or anomaly researcher. Both factions are, or should be, viable and serious courses of study. If we are ever going to come to grips with the enigma of whether there is physical life elsewhere in the universe, then we need to stop tiptoeing and speculating on this issue.

Eric Crumley

Sebastopol

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