Letters to the Editor
Here to Help
Greetings to all my Middlefield friends. I want to say thank you for your support in the election. I am honored to be your village councilman for another term.
Please contact me with your ideas and concerns. I’ll do my very best to help.
Ron Wiech
Middlefield Village Councilman
Creating a Positive Environment
I’m adding my voice to the chorus of people calling for diversity training in WG’s curriculum. Jennifer Turcok’s article in the Nov. 2 issue of the Chesterland News highlights the urgent need for such education.
I am deeply saddened to hear what Debbie Green’s son has experienced in his own community. Ms. Green’s son, along with all the other children in our community, deserve the best education WG can offer. To achieve this goal, it is important to create a positive environment where students are respectful of different backgrounds.
However, this responsibility should not fall only to teachers, administrators and the school district. Communities as a whole must want to implement a diversity program in the local schools. I believe in the decency of my neighbors in Chesterland and I believe together we can create a more respectful, welcoming environment for everyone.
To that end, I would like to suggest a parent/ community group to discuss this. Please join me at the WG library on Dec. 2 at 11 a.m. I will be near the circulation desk.
And I look forward to beginning this work with you.
Heather Fisher
Chester Township
Transition of Leadership
Thank you to the voters of Chester Township for electing me to be one of your trustees. I appreciate the overwhelming support both in the voting booth and over the past several months.
Thank you also to all the other candidates who showed the desire to serve our community.
Thank you to friends, family, and supporters for everything, especially to my wife, Amy.
I look forward to working with current trustees, fiscal officer and department heads as the transition of leadership takes place, and then the team that will take Chester into the next four years.
Bob Rogish
Chester Township
Support, Generosity Appreciated
The Montville Fire Department Association would like to thank everyone that attended the fall dinner and the Chinese auction.
We would also like to sincerely thank all of the businesses and individuals that donated items. Your support and generosity is great appreciated.
Thanks again.
Connie Stone
Montville Fire Association
Thankful for Trustee Service
First, to the voters of Chester Township, thank you for voting and thank you very much for your strong support of our Fire/EMS services with the levy renewal.
I would like to publicly thank Trustees Mike Petruziello and Bud Kinney for their service as Chester Trustees the past four years. While the outcome of the recent election was not what they had hoped for, I appreciate their willingness to serve a second term and the positive campaigns they ran.
Externally, it may not appear so significant, but internally, through the efforts of Mike and Bud there have been significant improvements in how we manage our staffing, budgeting and planning. Their ability to civilly engage in public discourse, while at times robust, is important to effective, open government that the people of Chester deserve.
Chester Township is a better place because of their service and I personally and publicly thank Mike and Bud for being a key part of that.
Ken Radtke Jr.
Chester Township Trustee
Learning Optional? Fix It
I was shocked to read in the “Berkshire’s Graduate Profile Explained” article in the Oct. 26 edition of the Maple Leaf Berkshire Schools Superintendent John Stoddard’s assessment of Berkshire’s current educational system.
He indicated the system was designed for compulsory attendance for all with learning optional. That is a very bold statement that puts into question the efforts of all the teachers in the district.
Being new to the district, I guess Mr. Stoddard may see things a little differently from the rest of us in the district. I welcome him to justify his assessment.
If it turns out his assessment is truly correct, I feel betrayed and duped as a taxpayer, for supporting the Berkshire district for many years and this current educational system. If I knew that learning was only optional in the district, I would have fought to change that mentality long ago. I’m hoping his assessment is not quite correct as I see a lot of learning going on at Berkshire.
I’m concerned the Ohio Department of Education’s report card results from Sept. 14 for Berkshire do seem to be in line with the optional learning mentality. They gave Berkshire four Ds, one B and one F in their report card on the district.
In all fairness to Berkshire, the F they received in “K-3 Literacy” appears to have been the fault of a record keeping error. Some boxes were left unchecked on forms, according to Mr. Stoddard. He indicated that would be corrected next year.
It baffles me why the district and the ODE can’t correct the record keeping error now and re-issue the grades. Shouldn’t we be very interested in determining how our students actually performed in the K-3 Literacy? Why wait and waste another whole year to get accurate scores? We should be interested in current, actual scores so any issues could be addressed now. With a granddaughter in that grade range at Burton Elementary, I am very concerned about the actual current scores.
Mr. Stoddard further stated in the article he does not want to tinker with the current educational system designed for compulsory attendance with learning optional. Instead, he appears to want to wait for the new pre-K through 12th-grade facility alongside the Kent State Burton campus and to design a new compulsory learning educational system with our students in mind.
Well, these are my thoughts to Mr. Stoddard and the Berkshire school board. I agree we should not tinker with the current educational system. Instead, we need to fix the current educational system, NOW! Why wait until a new school is built to fix the educational system?
I will not support any thoughts now or any time in the future to pay for any new school until this compulsory attendance and optional learning environment is fixed.
I only hope other parents and members of the community share my views and demand the school district remedies this situation before ANY talks of building a new school continue.
Until learning is compulsory, the old buildings will work just fine.
It is what the students learn, not where they learning it.
Dan Galdun
Claridon Township
Newbury Will Continue to Thrive
Dear Voters of Newbury Township:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you that made my re-election Newbury Township Trustee possible.
Whether you filled in the dot beside my name on the ballot, wrote a letter or just spread the word, I am sincerely grateful for your support. I will continue to do my part, for the next four years, by being the responsible individual you so graciously gave the vote of confidence on Nov. 7.
Newbury Township will continue to thrive into the next decade. Again, thank you for your support.
William Skomrock Jr.
Newbury Township Trustee
