DEAR RON LETTERS

Ron Davis’ column in the March 8 edition of the Independent, “Let’s

keep Ocean View gym debate on the merits,” was perfect and reflects

exactly the position of the residents who have legitimate concerns about

how (not if) the project moves forward.

I heard the comments of Liz Williams (Marine View principal) and Pam

Walker at the council meeting Monday night and was appalled.

Keep up the good work.

GINO BRUNO

Huntington Beach

After pulling the Independent out of my Times first thing each

Thursday morning for a couple of weeks, I’d been wondering if the Ocean

View School District gyms issue would ever make it into Davis’ column.

This morning, my wait was well-rewarded by his excellent, thoughtful

piece.

It was the perfect antidote to the dyspepsia brought on by this week’s

City Council meeting appearance by Williams and Walker, our local

Community Advisory Committee meeting and a school board meeting.

Thank you again for taking the time to dig into this problem, instead

of ignoring the ever-growing number of citizens who are tired of being

characterized by the district as anti-kids, accused of harassment for

asking questions and treated like an annoying little group of

malcontents.

There are hundreds of us, and the discontent is the direct result of a

lot of blatantly dishonest words and behavior from the district

hierarchy.

PAT MATZKE

Huntington Beach

Thank you, Ron Davis, for your recent article in the Independent.

As a Mesa View neighbor concerned about the gym project, your article

was right on.

The “anti-kid” slogan is offensive and highly inaccurate. I have

attended school board meetings since October, and have listened closely

to pro-kid neighbor after pro-kid neighbor voice concerns over the impact

to our neighborhoods, as well as the appropriateness of spending such an

immense amount of money on over-scaled facilities, while carpeting in

some classrooms is kept together by duct tape.

Our committee recommendations echo the same sentiment. The residents

of all of the affected neighborhoods positively support an appropriately

sized facility for the kids-ONLY.

But facilities used by outside interests will tremendously change the

flavor of our neighborhood, for the worse. These schools were originally

elementary schools.

As elementary schools, they fit perfectly into the neighborhood. As

middle schools, they barely fit into the neighborhood.

KATHRYN WEBER

Huntington Beach

I wish to thank you for publishing the article by Ron Davis on the

Ocean View gym debates, which appeared in the Independent.

That article and the perspective from which it came were right on

target. I hope the Independent will continue to make the important

contributions to the community it has made in the past by following

issues like this in news articles, columns and editorials as appropriate

and will follow this issue to its conclusions.

This is the kind of reporting and newspaper I look to as a member of

the community for information, and the Independent is the first I have

looked to and will continue to look to for this purpose.

ROBERT WINCHELL

Huntington Beach

Thank you for the excellent representation by Ron Davis to our issues

in your recent article.

As a representative of the four middle schools, I have been attending

our City Council meetings and voicing our frustrations and concerns with

the misleading and deliberate misrepresentation of Supt. Jim Tarwater and

the Ocean View School District’s comments to our neighborhoods.

I think that I clarified our viewpoints very well at the last council

meeting.

Our position has always been that the majority of our community are

willing to support a small gymnasium/auditorium/cafetorium, locker rooms,

etc. for our “own” middle school students.

I was then followed by Liz Williams (a principal of one of the middle

schools) and Pam Walker, who is on the Ocean View school board.

Williams comments were slanderous and totally inaccurate toward our

City Council members and our community, accusing our council members of

being anti-children.

Pam Walker’s comments were also misleading, as well as totally

controversial, for a board member to speak up on an issue that she is

supposed to be impartial to and expected to cast her vote for acceptance

or rejection of this project “after” hearing “all” the community and

school input.

We as a community object to the misstatements of these individuals

misrepresenting our viewpoints and are concerned about their partiality

toward the school board decision.

I personally feel that Williams and Pam Walker owe the school board

and this community an apology for their comments.

We as neighbors live here in our neighborhoods and, as Ron Davis so

appropriately stated, we have endured a great deal.

We as good neighbors manage the noise, trash all over the sidewalks

and schoolyards, diesel fuel, U-turns in our streets, daily traffic on

our streets for drop-off and pickup of students, honking of horns at 7:30

a.m., graffiti on our walls, trashing of our yards and late nights

events, as well as lack of parking for our own families and functions.

We live here and manage these things for our own middle school

students. We are in support of our own middle school students having a

junior-size building for their own interests, with a guarantee of the

school district of no future usage/rental.

We do not want any further outside usage of these school properties in

the center of our neighborhood tracts.

We do care about our children and feel their best interest could be

served by improving their physical facilities, removing the

mold-producing mobile units, improving their libraries, replacing the

rusty fencing, adding more computers and chem labs to their facilities

and, most importantly, retrofitting these brick facilities in the event

of earthquakes.

Let us concentrate on these educational and safety interests first.

Improve their environment and make educational needs first and give them

the basic needs to accomplish their educational, scholastic dreams, as

well as President Bush’s agenda of leaving no child behind.

SHERRILL DICK

Huntington Beach