Skaters should win out over pooches I...

Skaters should win out over pooches

I believe that the skateboard park is more important than

extending the Bark Park in Costa Mesa.

The dogs have had a place for many years now, and our children who

are our future have recently lost a bowling alley, an ice skating

rink and a movie theater. I believe most of us in Costa Mesa are in

favor of finding some good clean outdoor fun for our future residents

of this city.

BETH DU BOISE

Costa Mesa

KOCE may not have so much support

I’m starting my 27th year as a professor at Orange Coast College,

and I read with concern recent articles about Coast Community College

District and the sale of KOCE-TV. They made it seem as if there were

a lot of people at a board meeting -- 300 to 400 were estimates --

opposing the sale of the station.

Did anyone else wonder how many of those were friends and

relatives of people employed at the station? It’s also worth noting

that the meeting was held the week before school was in session.

Teachers weren’t around in significant numbers. In any case, there

have been longer, deeper discussions of this issue involving many

hundreds more.

Our Academic Senate -- legally appointed representatives of local

teacher opinion -- has passed motions asking that the station either

be made solvent or divested by the district. One such motion was

presented during my second term as senate president, three years ago.

The Golden West College faculty made a similar motion.

Yet the station’s recent capital campaign netted less than half of

the $8 million required for digital retrofit, let alone the probable

$3 million annual cost. Where was this “groundswell” of public

support when the basket got passed around?

The faculty at OCC alone is about 800, and we also are members of

the community. Our children attend college in this district. Most

importantly, we’re the persons charged with the primary mission of

the district: to educate. This should be the key matter.

We’re in an educational crisis. The students we’re teaching are

less and less prepared. Even basic literacy is an issue now. The Cal

State system won’t handle remediation anymore and is turning large

numbers of freshmen back to the community colleges. Some 60% of our

students were remedial, even before. I suspect that the percentage is

much higher now.

Recent bond issues will help the fact that we can’t offer promptly

repaired or clean restrooms for our students -- this as we

continually hold KOCE, the jewel in our straw hat -- but recent state

cutbacks are causing a massive reduction of sections, precisely at

the time that they are most needed, and bond issues won’t cover that.

Does anyone really think that television, educational or

otherwise, is the best solution?

MICHAEL GLOVER LEIGH

Costa Mesa