Published: August 05, 2008 09:47 pm            

LETTERS: Aug. 5, 2008

Parent offers kudos to Henryville program

As the first day of school quickly approaches we wanted to take the opportunity to thank the kindergarten teachers at Henryville Elementary for Camp Kindergarten.

Our first child did not have the opportunity to attend this type of program and was much more apprehensive about starting school. Camp Kindergarten allowed our second son to go on a tour of the school, meet teachers, eat in the cafeteria, and ride a school bus. He has been counting the days until August 12 since the camp.

The program is also very beneficial for parents of new kindergartens. Having a child entering the second grade we are already familiar with the school, yet found the program for the parents to be very informative. We recommended every child and parent participate in this type of program when their child is entering kindergarten.

We have been extremely pleased with the quality education our child has received at Henryville Elementary and this is one more example of the extra mile they go to help the students grow and prepare to be educated.

Thank you to Mrs. Sharon Reich at GCCS for obtaining a grant to fund Camp Kindergarten and a special thank you to Mrs. Heidi Sellers and Mrs. Kim LaMaster for being such outstanding teachers.

— Mike and Crissy Knox, Memphis



NAFC makes new adversary in this reader

This is an open letter to the administrators at New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp.

It didn’t really slap me in the face — not physically, that is — but the feeling was almost the same.

The message you brought to us was that we substitute teachers were being terminated by the NAFC school corporation and that our jobs, and the supervision thereof, would transfer to Kelly Services. No matter that many of us had several years’ history in understanding NAFC and its vagaries, and in finding ways to help the kids. No matter that we, most of us, had worked at a basically thankless and undercompensated job in order to help both the teachers and the kids. If anyone was in it “for the money,” they were only fooling themselves.

It seems the only thing that matters is that we are not worth the administrative effort and cost that would be required to schedule us and get us paid. We are apparently not considered by administrators to be a part of the system, but only as sometimes-necessary outsiders. I don’t believe that opinion would be echoed by the teachers, or by the students, if a consensus were to be checked out.

The response that I had over the course of my ten-odd years as a sub was quite different. It was in general respectful, cooperative, and even cordial. I enjoyed most of my “work time,” and I am persuaded that both the teachers I “replaced” and their students found my work to be both pleasant and productive.

But none of the above is any longer relevant. The only thing to be considered is that my compadres and I have now achieved the status of millstones and have been shipped out to do our grinding elsewhere.

Well, so be it. I never wanted to be a burden. And I won’t be one. It was never my ambition to be a Kelly Girl, and I won’t be that either. I’m outta here.

My only business that remains with NAFC is that I promise to be the very best adversary I know how to be when they ask for more tax money.

— Herman Hoffman, former NAFC substitute teacher, New Albany



Thanks for speaking up about drainage issue

Kudos to Elizabeth Coyle of the Storm Water Board for encouraging enforcement of our drainage ordinance, which holds property owners responsible for the runoff of their storm water (The Tribune, July 26, 2008).

Just as it would be wrong for someone to damage their neighbor’s home by throwing rocks through their windows or driving their car through their muddy yard, it is equally wrong to damage a neighbor’s property by discharging water that causes land erosion, basement flooding, etc. The police will deal with someone who causes damage to a neighbor’s home by tossing rocks through their windows, but no one in our city/county government will do anything in response to damage caused by storm water run-off from a neighboring property.

Of course, our city/county governments share most of the blame in this matter. Until recently, our city/county governments have approved, and even encouraged, development without any thought to the resulting storm water run-off. Subdivisions, industrial parks, shopping centers, etc., were seen as a source of new tax revenues. It seems our leaders did not want to discourage such development by requiring builders and developers to increase their development cost by providing for storm water control.

Concurrently, local leaders did not want to use their new revenues to pay for additional storm sewers and other run-off controls either. So, now we have th predictable results, neighbor versus neighbor feuds developing and the city responding, “It’s not our problem, hire an attorney to resolve your problem.”

The city should not turn a blind eye to this problem and expect every resident with a flooding problem to duke it out with his neighbors in court. That would be a slow and costly process that would probably not resolve the underlying cause of the problem — there often is nowhere else for the water to go.

There are no storm sewers in my neighborhood and therefore, there is no easy way for each of my 300 plus neighbors to retain or control their run-off. They cannot build 300 plus retention ponds and they cannot channel their run-off to storm sewers that don’t exist. And, I sure as heck don’t want to have to take all of them to court to stop the damage caused by their run-off.

This is a problem that deserves more attention from our city/county governments.

It is good to see that one of the persons in a position to hear residents’ complaints, Elizabeth Coyle, is stepping forward to push for a planned response, rather than a free-for-all.

— Dennis Feiock, New Albany

        

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