A gift to the school district

To the editor:

I would like to take the time to publicly state that I believe the reason Sullivan West is off the front page of every news paper is really quite simple. We have Ken Hilton (our superintendent) to thank.

If you have never taken the time to get to know Ken Hilton, you have no idea just how blessed Sullivan West is to have him here with us. Ken is a great leader. He deals with people directly and answers the questions that people take the time to ask him. It is because Ken Hilton treats others with respect, love, grace and integrity that there is no need to talk about issues on the front page of the newspaper. When an occasional issue comes up that needs to be dealt with, Ken takes care of it.

You have no idea how nice it is to not have to attend a public meeting or write to the paper to get a loving, respectful and thoughtful response from our superintendent. Ken doesn’t hide behind litigation privacy or bury his head in the sand and pretend the issues aren’t real. I can’t say enough about our current superintendent and I thank God everyday that Ken Hilton is with us.

Many Americans have died for your right to vote. When we choose not to vote, we give up one of the greatest freedoms we have as Americans. I appreciate all the people who thought I would make a good board of education member and voted for me. Thank you.

I have no doubt that John Reggero will serve Sullivan West with integrity. I support John and wish him all the best as he serves our district over the next three years.

Shannon Dee Bailey

Mileses, NY

Change may kill SCIL

To the editor:

I was saddened to read that Sullivan County Interacademic League (SCIL), Sullivan County’s uniquely creative, academic league, is being revamped. Bill Duncan, SCIL’s founder, a man I greatly respect, put it more bluntly when he said last week that SCIL is being more than just revamped, it “may be strangled.”

As a former SCIL coach and longtime teacher, I can attest to the fact that SCIL has been a tremendous benefit to our county’s most talented students. Whether it’s been art, music math or science, SCIL offers our best students (and we do have plenty of them) added challenges.

Why change something that isn’t really broken?

Well, apparently standardized testing is part of the answer. What about the time those talented students are missing from doing more practice for yet another standardized exam?

The truth, of course, is that tests do matter. Numbers matter. I wouldn’t go to a doctor who judged my cholesterol using an ouija board.

But the obsession with standardized test scores in our nation has gotten out of control. Numbers matter—but there are people involved here, too. The fact is that the SCIL students don’t miss all that much class time. And, these are typically excellent students anyway. They catch up.

I’ve known many of the SCIL coaches and witnessed the “acaletes” do great things over the years.

I urge the county’s educational leaders to allow SCIL to continue as is for one additional year so that local educators can give any transition more measured consideration.

That sort of decision would truly serve as a positive model?not only for our kids but for the county at large.

Thanks for your consideration.

A few questions about proprietary rights

Courts have decided with gas drillers that they needn’t identify the chemicals they are mixing with our water in the fracking of natural gas. Am I the only one who thinks that “proprietary rights” in this case has more to do with gas drillers’ worries about possible citizen outrage than industry advantage? Which of the drilling companies has a cocktail they are unhappy with, or that doesn’t frack? Do landsmen make it a selling point that their driller has the best cocktail? Are any of the landowners going to do their own drilling and fracking if they learn the formula? If one of the formulas is “safer” than the others, shouldn’t it be used everywhere? Why do “proprietary rights” trump clean water rights?

Go green, wear blue and spread the word on World Oceans Day

To the editor:

The United Nations has designated June 8, 2009 as the first official World Oceans Day.

The idea of a “World Ocean Day” was proposed in 1992 by the Government of Canada at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Like our atmosphere, the world’s oceans face a grim future if more is not done to protect them. They cover 71 percent of the globe, and control our climate. They are the primary source of protein for one billion people around the world and drive our economies. In the last few decades we have witnessed the tremendous environmental impact restored rivers and lakes have on our ecological and economic health. We need equally healthy oceans because they generate most of our oxygen, help feed us, regulate our climate, generate clean drinking water, spawn endless employment, store pharmacopoeia of potential medicines and they never ever cease to inspire us.

Despite this knowledge we allow industrial fishing to plunder ocean wildlife, while laws meant to check land-based pollution that destroys the ocean’s eco system, are ignored or selectively enforced. As a result fisheries are declining rapidly, marine habitat is shrinking, coastal waters are severely polluted and our seafood is often poisoned.

The Earth’s largest and most important natural eco-system is breaking down, and with it the lives of millions of animal species as well as the livelihood and health of millions of people.

Even though the Upper Delaware region is landlocked, we can all make a difference by celebrating World Oceans Day.

Of course World Oceans Day’s color is blue, so start by wearing blue on Monday the 8th, and spread the word by bringing attention to the impact we humans are having on the oceans and what we can do about it.

For more information on organizations that work hard to help the oceans visit www.theoceanproject.org and oceana.org.