Healdsburg Letters to the Editor, June 28, 2018

Open letter to David Mickaelian, Healdsburg city manager
EDITOR: Just now I was driving across University Avenue by the Healdsburg High School track. Here it is around 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon at 100°F. Guess what, the contractor retrofitting the track at HHS had several pieces of equipment moving dirt, getting things done, reaching a goal, perhaps meeting a deadline.
Curiosity begged me. I then, drove by the roundabout, status of which seems to be ignored and/or not reported on fully and seemingly avoided by said city manager in Cityscape or public reports, as noted in my June 21 Letter to the Editor, “Elephant at the Intersection.”
The HHS contractor is working on a Saturday in triple-digit heat. Don’t know where they are on contract timeline, but they seem to be moving ahead, doing something.
The roundabout contactor is not working on Saturday, nor do I think they have ever worked weekends or nights, definitely no 24/7 activity, no outward signs of catching up and getting their job done.
Seemingly, that contractor is cavalier about finishing the contracted job and shows no intent of working extra hours/days to accomplish what they were contracted to do, metaphorically, eons ago.
Make sense? HHS track, yes. Roundabout, absolutely ludicrous example of contractor’s failure to execute and mismanagement of contract/contactor oversight by the city manager, for which heads should roll and accountability addressed, with appropriate punishment and financial penalties assessed, severely.
Be aware, the elephant is still there at the roundabout, and seemingly, no one is being held accountable.
Maybe someone should swab all involved and submit to 23andMe, just to see if there is nepotism in the mix… ­How else do you explain this roundabout fiasco and keeping the debacle off the radar?
Dave Dahlke
Frequent Healdsburg visitor from Reno, Nevada
On equality and equity
EDITOR: The Healdsburg Unified School District Leadership Team has been engaged in discussion with numerous stakeholders – parents, staff and community members – around the concept of equity. Equity, often confused with equality, can be a difficult concept to understand. Sir Ken Robinson, a renowned educational speaker and advisor, defines it well in his book You, Your Child, and School: Navigate Your Way to the Best Education:
“One of the core purposes of a publicly funded education system is to ensure equity of opportunity for all children, irrespective of their circumstances. Like equality, equity is – or should be – a basic principle in democratic societies. Equality is about affording all people the same rights and status. Equity is about recognizing that some people need more support, or resources, than others to benefit from those rights. The ideal of public education is to provide all young people with the opportunities they need to lead fulfilled lives and to contribute to the common good. That means helping those who need it most and not only helping ourselves.”
In this sense, equity is about providing a more individualized approach to each student to enable them to meet the same goal – personalized support and opportunity for all. I want to reiterate the commitment of the Healdsburg Unified School District to the concept of equity. Our board and entire staff are dedicated to continuous improvement, dialog and reflection to insure that all our systems and outcomes continue to be more equitable for all of our students.
Furthermore, as our community’s public schools, we are committed to finding ways to remove the obstacles that divide us. One of our core values is the ideal of a united society that embraces individual differences. We strive to instill this ideal in our students on a daily basis. Thus, we are also focused on finding ways to bring our community together through our schools and programs that model this value to all of our children.
To help realize these goals, I will be forming a Superintendent’s Advisory Committee on equity in our schools, made up of school and community stakeholders that will begin work this summer examining and discussing HUSD systems and practices through the lens of equity. We are dedicated to transparent, open and honest dialog and self-examination. Indeed, if we are to be successful, we will need to have a forum such as this committee for honest, candid and often difficult conversations. No topic, including our elementary school configuration, will be ignored or omitted as we continue to seek ways to meet all of our students’ unique educational needs and bring our community together.
Chris Vanden Heuvel
Superintendant, HUSD
Facing the opioid crisis
EDITOR: Several residents of Northern Sonoma County have been leading an effort on a volunteer basis to prepare for and suggest approaches to reduce the risk of harm to local residents from the growing opiate epidemic. As reported by the Sonoma County Health Department, in 2016, an estimated 5.7 percent of people ages 12 years and older (25,462 individuals) misused opioids in Sonoma County, with 22 deaths in the county attributed to opioid use in 2016 alone. Most observers believe that the opioid epidemic may be the single greatest factor decreasing the life expectancy of Americans to below that of previous generations.
The community coalition includes Alliance Medical Center, Healdsburg District Hospital, AAUW Healdsburg Branch, Soroptomist International of Healdsburg, Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County, Corazón
 Healdsburg and local officials including the Healdsburg chief of police and the Sonoma County Department of Health Services. Additional local organizations are planning to join this effort.
The steering committee includes Dr. Dave Anderson, retired physician from Healdsburg Primary Care, Dr. Walt Maack, retired medical director from the Emergency Department at Healdsburg District Hospital and Terry Leach, a health care attorney and RN who serves as a co vice-chair of Alliance Medical Center and as a director on the board of AAUW, Healdsburg Branch.
The task force is planning for a large community education event on Wednesday, October 3 at 7 p.m. at the Raven Performing Arts Theater. This event, which will feature a documentary and a panel discussion, will be free to the public. The goal of the community event is to describe the breadth of the opiate epidemic nationally and here in our community in Sonoma County, as well as to describe resources for families and communities to help prepare for this public health emergency locally. 
Members of the public and local agencies and non-profit organizations that are interested in working with the task force and/or supporting the efforts of the coalition are invited to contact the steering committee at Ha********************@al***************.org.
Terry J. Leach
Healdsburg