What does mandatory really mean?
(Editor’s note: The following letter is in reference to Frank Robertson’s article, “Staying Behind in Guerneville,” in last week’s paper.)
EDITOR: Per the Sonoma County Fire District, residents who do not evacuate following a mandatory order are extremely problematic for the firefighters. When residents remain in a neighborhood, air tankers cannot deploy fire retardant. Firefighters must stop their work of fighting the fire to deal with people who are not supposed to be present. This puts entire neighborhoods at risk of burning.
During the fire and related power shutdown, many people in areas not affected by the fire felt it was OK to remain in their homes, despite the evacuation order.
The biggest firefight of the Kincade event was along Hwy 101, to prevent the fire from jumping the highway and being propelled by high winds to the west and southwest. The fire was projected to follow Sweetwater Springs Road, over the hills into Guernevillle. Guerneville was in danger, hence the mandatory evacuation order. This was based on satellite photos from NASA.
The lives of firefighters are at risk when they must stop doing their job on the fire to personally escort residents away from danger. Do you want them to be able to do their job of saving areas from burning? Or do you want them to let homes burn while they babysit residents who think they don’t have to obey the law?
Lois Lebovich
Member Russian River Fire District – Disaster Evacuation Planning Committee
Guerneville
The price of Paul Boylan
EDITOR: What do the school districts of the West County high schools, Twin Hills, Sebastopol, Forestville, Wilmar and Harmony have in common?
The interests of education may have been misrepresented by the legal advice dispensed by the Davis-based attorney, Paul Boylan. He served as the attorney during teacher contract negotiations on all six school districts. Well, he did, until last week when somebody at the high school district finished their negotiations without the lawyer, letting him go before the final round that led to a tentative settlement, ending the first high school teachers strike in Sonoma County history.
How much his counterproductive tactics and misguided legal advice cost taxpayers isn’t known yet. But it should be.
As of end of day Nov. 19, all six school districts have received requests for documentation of Boylan’s retainer agreements, his legal expenses, court filing fees, travel expenses, fees for experts and hiring of process servers. (Like the process server who appeared at my front door at 8:30 a.m. of the morning of the largest evacuation in Sonoma County history.)
When I find out, I’ll let you know the price tag of Boylan’s involvement.
Bleys Rose
Sebastopol
Dear Bleys: We look forward to the results of your inquiry. Sonoma West has also been looking into the question of just how much money Paul Boylan has made from schools in West County, but we hadn’t thought about all the related legal fees. We’ll add that our list. Readers can expect an article on this topic soon. -— Editor Laura Hagar Rush
An open letter to Superintendent Beal and the School Board
EDITOR: Thank you for removing the six period day from the Fiscal Recovery Plan option list for 2020-21.
Thank you for not recommending that a six-period day be pursued for 2020-21.
Thank you for committing to doing a complete analysis of the six-period day option before deciding if that’s a budget-saving option to consider.
Thank you for reaching out to work with the WSCS Community Action Coalition moving forward.
Thank you for changing the paradigm from one of cuts to one of promotion and growth.
Thank you for listening to the community’s overwhelming support for our essential electives and teachers.
As a parent of two students at Analy and as an Analy Alumni, I’m hoping that we can work together as a community to keep the seven-period school schedule and essential electives at Analy.
Our students and teachers are the best investment for the future, locally and globally.
Michelle Ramos, Analy Class of 1997
Parent of Class of 2020 and 2022
Member of the WSCS Community Action Coalition
Explore other options
EDITOR: On Friday afternoon the West County high school teachers’ union and the West Sonoma County Union High School District (WSCUHSD) reached an agreement granting the teachers a juicy 12% pay raise, at least partly contingent on passage of a parcel tax. All well and good since the schools were only adversely affected for three teaching days out of an entire academic year.
Perhaps if the district is unable to fund its own classroom teachers without raising taxes, it should consider consolidating by joining itself with a nearby district, like the Santa Rosa City School District, for example. This might solve their money issues in the least painful way for west county property owners. Penalizing students by cutting the number of classes per day, from seven to six should never be on schools’ bargaining table.
Teachers deserve far, far better treatment. They are even more important to society than lawyers and doctors, yet their societal position has dropped, not improved, over the years. I write this as a former high school teacher in my 70s myself.
Frank H. Baumgardner, III
Grandfather of an Analy student
Santa Rosa
