Rockville Centre Letters to the Editor

Sensationalizing the issue

To the Editor:

As a parent who enjoyed participating in the experience of my children’s attendance at St. Mark’s Cooperative Nursery School, as well as their growing up as members of St. Mark’s Church, I take offense at your choice to use the word “evicted” in your front page headline last week (“St. Mark’s Co-op evicted”). The negative connotation of the word suggests a desire to sensationalize the events and cast St. Mark’s Methodist Church is a unfavorable light.

When a lease is not renewed, no one is evicted — the tenant simply looks for new quarters and leaves when their lease is over. Two weeks is plenty of time to move the contents of the school and certainly not a hardship for the students, families and staff when the school year has ended and they’ve had months of notice. We all know that there are at least three sides to any story. Despite the misleading headline, I applaud your publishing comments from both parties.

Although attempts were made, the needs of the nursery school could not be accommodated within the changing needs of the church. As a community, we should all desire to have both of these positive resources flourish, and the best way for that to happen is to discard the invective and focus on moving forward and providing services to the village at large.

Lester Schad

Rockville Centre

Governor wrong on evaluations

To the Editor:

I am a retired teacher who worked in New York City. The majority of teachers are hardworking, caring people. They work many more hours past regular school hours. They buy supplies for their students with their own money and care about students.

Governor Cuomo thinks charter schools are the answer. They are not. Charter schools, which are not always successful, succeed because they select only the students they want, and parents must get involved.

If the governor wants to fix schools and help students, he needs parent involvement. In homes where education is stressed, children do well in school.

Poverty is another reason for failing students. If a child is hungry or doesn’t have appropriate clothing or comes from a horrible home, he or she will not do well in school.