George Laase

The editor of this newspaper lives in his own little world of words. I guess that is where he feels comfortable. He has made his living as a writer and persuader of words. I, too, would agree the statement that our teachers had not had a raise in five years is structurally accurate, truthful statement. Was it the whole truth?

Even though last year the School District had shown that it was deficit spending at a rate of over $3 million annually, and after calls from the public to hold off raises until the following year, it was School Board president Kathy Paspalis who chose to publicly defend the staff's raises. She echoed the teachers’ often repeated, but misleading, claim that they “haven’t had a raise in five years.”

Is it really good for our community to have local power-seeking, political groups, such as the United Parents of Culver City and now the Friends of the Culver City Natatorium popping up, endorsing candidates based on political litmus tests?

As we have seen lately, it looks as if candidate Robert Zirgulis’s election strategy is to try and ride the Natatorium's wave of community support all the way onto the School Board on Election Day in November. It seems he cannot fathom that most of the people signing the petition in support of refurbishing the Natatorium probably don't have...

Our school facilities need fixing. At the moment we don’t have enough money in our deferred maintenance account or School District savings to repair all of them. But how do we proceed?

When I entered the construction gate at the football field at Culver City High School, the first thing that caught my eye was the immense emerald green field laid out with its contrasting, deep blue end zones. C-e-n-t-a-u-r-s was emblazoned in big, bold white letters across it. A sight to behold.

There is said to be a constant plume of pollution and ultra-fine particulates emanating from truck and automobile traffic on the 405 Freeway. The combination of seasonal weather and daily traffic patterns can alleviate or exacerbate the concentration of these pollutants on the campus of the nearby El Marino Language School.

The debate over whether our schools need fixing is finished. Now we need to focus on how much will it cost, over what period of time the work will be done, and the added debt to property owners.

I read United Parents of Culver City’s online petition about the bond measure, and I have some of questions about the way they wrote it. First, their use of the figure $70M. I know of no number that has been agreed upon by our governing School Board. How did they come up with this?

“The Board has been elected to do the work of the people.” When I read this statement about the School Board, it stopped me cold. I had to pinch myself. I read it again, slowly. Wow. I have to fundamentally...