Letters to the Editor

Athletic director firing doesn't make sense

I was amazed and disturbed at the Department of Education by what Drake Beil presented in his Jan. 11 Focus section commentary regarding the now "kicked out" athletic director, David Aulik, at Kailua, Kona's Kealakehe High School.

Here in Hawai'i, we are trying to get energetic, concerned, devoted teachers and coaches, and the DOE fires Mr. Aulik.

I know Drake Beil; he's a fellow Rotarian and lives by the "Four-Way Test," including "Is it the truth?" So, I've been trying to contact people who could shed some light on this bizarre firing. My conclusion: The DOE made a mistake, does not know what it did, and no one knows who did it.

Apathy? Yes. DOE employees trying to improve the DOE? No. The DOE rewarding achievers? No — it fires them. Isn't this a shame and denying our keiki?

Will the DOE reverse its decision? Ms. Patricia Hamamoto: Will you please put this item at the top of your agenda? Many people hope that you will.

There's good reason for smaller districts

The Advertiser recently echoed many of my fellow Board of Education members when it asked why we are talking about breaking the DOE into smaller school districts when the rest of the United States is consolidating districts (Jan. 19 editorial).

The truth is that school district consolidation usually deals with extremely small districts. Fifty years ago, the average district size was about 200 students. Today the average size is about 3,000 students. No one, not even consolidation advocates, wants to create districts of over 150,000 students, as we have here in Hawai'i.

The trend to merge districts began to taper off in the 1970s. For the past 30 years, studies have shown that students fare worse in large districts, particularly students from low-income families. Over 50 years of research and dozens of experts agree that the optimal school district size ranges from 1,500 students (rural areas) to no more than 50,000 students.

There are over 15,000 public school districts in the United States, and most states have hundreds of districts. The reason we are the only state with a single school district is that the rest of the nation knows that education is best operated at the local level.

City found money for roads; find it for police

During the recent settlement of the arbitrated police contract, Mayor Harris and his managing director, Ben Lee, emphatically told us that the city had no monies to fund the $5 million-plus for the first year of the contract. So what happens? The city and the City Council put the hit on the motor vehicle owners of O'ahu with a big tax increase.

The arbitrator in this situation pointed out that the city in fact had hidden monies in the various padded city department budgets to fund the contract. Jeremy Harris and Ben Lee denied this. All of a sudden, due to the heavy rains, we have an emergency pothole situation on our roadways that requires repairs. The city instantly comes up with $2.5 million to hire an outside contractor to take care of the problem. Just like that, the city "found" the money.

The city has more of these "hidden" monies that could have been used to fund the police contract instead of placing the burden exclusively on our car-driving taxpayers.

Stopping the source of ice is first priority

The state ice task force recommends spending $21.6 million to be primarily used for drug prevention and intervention and treatment programs.

This is great for keeping government- and medical-related jobs afloat, but it is also "putting the cart before the horse." Stopping the source and distribution of drugs should be the first priority.

Advertiser's censorship of USA insert gutless

I think your decision to withhold circulation of Sunday's USA Weekend magazine because of the inadvertent appearance of "an offensive word" is gutless and infuriating.

Which word is so offensive that its inclusion justifies such censorship in the name of propriety?

Apparently your editorial honchos don't have the courage to include the supplement with that naughty word and let your readers decide just how offensive it is. Do you have the guts to print this letter?

Vehicle tax is unfair

I don't understand why only drivers have to pay for the police raise and not other O'ahu residents. Is this not discrimination?