Letters

Published on September 25, 2009

Data are needed

To the Bulletin: As a parent of four in the local schools, and a graduate of Crocker Farm, Amherst Regional Junior High School and Amherst Regional High School myself, I read with interest the Bulletin's Sept. 10 coverage of planning activity to re-draw the Amherst school district. Alongside this news was an insightful op-ed ("Data: Not a Bad Thing"), advocating the value of considering comparative information when making local school policy decisions - a position no open-minded person can find fault with. May we assume that the School Committee will apply the data-seeking approach to the re-districting challenge?

For instance, the article notes that several attempts to gerrymander the map have not yet yielded acceptable improvement, yet curiously states that, "Neither of the two maps takes bus mileage or walking distance to schools into account."

When the Amherst School Committee evaluates similar high-performing school systems, it will be useful to learn whether those districts consider gasoline costs, commuting time and disruption of neighborhood cohesion when they are thinking of implementing a busing program to achieve noble, well-meaning but vague and perhaps impractical social justice aims.

And when other peer districts (Brookline, Newton, etc.) have used busing to re-distribute students among schools, what specific measurable improvements - attendance, test scores, achievement, drop-out rate, and post-graduate placement - have resulted, not only for the low-income subgroup but for all cohorts and system-wide as well?

To see our School Committee evaluate and apply this data would, indeed, not be a bad thing.

Thomas Porter
Amherst

Never too soon for some Fresh Air

To the Bulletin: This summer, 65 New York City children found out once again just how special summer is in western Massachusetts. Fresh Air Fund hosts, volunteers and local supporters dedicated their time and efforts to help these inner-city youngsters experience simple summertime pleasures in your community.

None of this would be possible without Susan Morrello, your local Fresh Air Fund volunteer leader, who works throughout the year to make sure host families and children have the opportunity to enjoy memorable summertime experiences together. I invite you to join Susan and the local Fresh Air Fund committee to help spread the word about the wonderful opportunity of hosting next summer.

For more information on how you can help to continue this wonderful tradition of volunteering, call Susan Morrello at 256-6463 or visit www.freshair.org (where you can also check out photos from 2009).

Jenny Morgenthau
executive director

Thanks are in order

To the Bulletin: On the eve of the Amherst Education Foundation's 15th anniversary, I write on behalf of the entire AEF Board of Directors to extend a public thanks to three women who helped create and nurture this enterprise for years.

Jan Klausner-Wise, Karen Dimock and MaryAnn Grim, all of whom retired from the AEF board in June after serving a combined 30-plus years, worked tirelessly and often quietly to enhance public education in Amherst, Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury.

They have been instrumental in AEF's growth from its inception in 1993 (when it was known as the Amherst Area Education Alliance) to the expanding and dynamic organization it is today. The results of their efforts have not only included raising more than $200,000 for the direct benefit of area students and teachers, but the successful completion of a year-long strategic planning process that solidly positioned the organization for growth and leadership for another 15 years.

Their legacy to our community is an education foundation that is stronger than ever and poised to meet the needs of Amherst area schools in the years ahead.

As we start the next chapter for AEF, we gratefully acknowledge the leadership and devotion that brought us this far.

Katie Allan Zobel
AEF president
Amherst

Careless gardener

To the Bulletin: $6,585.78 ... oh my.

Win Thorne was more bugged by having to pay $6,585.78 as a fine for using toxic insecticides for gardening. And I was more bugged that she was using insecticides in the first place. If only the price of the quart of insecticide was $6,585.78, she might have thought twice about buying it in the first place.

For centuries, master gardeners worldwide did not rely on toxic pesticides, insecticides and other cancer-causing chemicals to garden and farm acres and acres of fruits, vegetables and flowers.

With the reality of global warming, it's time to lessen our carbon footprint. Abstain from using insecticides, pesticides and other legal chemicals for our health and vitality, as well as for our families, neighbors and the planet.

To Win and all the big and little box stores selling these agents of death, think again. If the label offers hazardous warnings, don't use them. There is simply no need, especially if you want to be a master gardener.

Leslie Cerier
Shutesbury

Too much smoke

To the Bulletin: The Amherst Bulletin has been following our Board of Health's attempt to create a smoking policy for multi-unit apartment buildings.

Tragically, the Board of Health is on a track that reverses Amherst's trend to make our community safer for non-smokers, who make up 84 percent of Massachusetts' adult population. The Health Board is close to finalizing a town policy that would simply inform apartment seekers as to the location within a building of rental units with smokers. It would not, in any way, reduce the amount of cigarette, cigar or pipe smoke traveling around an apartment building. Nor has the Amherst Health Department yet cited any scientific evidence to support any real health benefit for this proposal.

Several of our apartment buildings house elderly and handicapped persons, many of whom have life-threatening medical conditions frequently requiring service within their apartments by incoming nurses and health-care professionals. And within these same buildings, service personnel have to visit apartments of smokers and be dangerously exposed to second-hand smoke.

Just recently, the Congress and the president created a new law that provides the Federal Drug Administration with the power to regulate nicotine. This is the latest step in the on-going gradual trend to reduce nicotine addiction and create a "Smoke-Free" America.

As one small step in this trend, why can't our Board of Health establish a regulation requiring a relatively inexpensive foam adhesive strip along the hallway side of apartment doors of smokers, combined with a floor seal attached to the same door, to prevent second-hand smoke from migrating throughout a building. The same safety insulation seal could be made available to those non-smoking residents who request it to further lower their exposure to a deadly risk. This is not an ideal solution, but it actually reduces smoke finding its way into the apartments of non-smokers while not requiring smokers to stop smoking or relocate.

This process is in use in Amherst already. And at least one "Smoke-Free" apartment complex is in town already.

We need to reduce the death toll of smoking from its current national level of over 400,000 persons per year, according to our Health Department's own literature. It may very well be that Town Meeting will need to fully discuss this issue next spring.

Alan Root
Amherst