As a parent of three children in middle and high school, I am concerned about the impact of the timing of final California state budget decisions on the quality of education in our local schools. The current proposal cuts away 85 percent of the local real estate tax contribution from the school budget. Given California's history, it's likely that the budget will not be final until late summer.

The school districts are in the impossible position of needing to decide how many teachers to lay off many months before they have a clear idea of how serious the cuts will be. To comply with employment agreements, the teachers must be notified by March 15 of potential layoffs. In the worst scenario, one-third of the staff would be laid off.

The likely implications are very grave. Many of the best teachers will leave the area due to the length of time that they won't know if they have a position. Schools, students and parents will have to make very critical decisions without having any idea what the budgetary parameters will be and what our local schools will offer.

Gray Davis must not be allowed to balance the state's budget at the expense of our schools and children. If he takes away property taxes from education, what's to stop him from taking any parcel taxes that we pass to help our schools. Our schools are already funded below the national average. We owe it to our children's future to ensure that they receive a quality education today.

—Ron Maltiel, Saratoga


Tired of talk about Winchester, Daves stoplight

I am tired of people complaining about the stoplights at Daves Avenue and Winchester Boulevard. I have lived in Los Gatos for 30 years. I have always been afraid that someone would be hit at that intersection. I have stood on the corner waiting for cars to go by so I could cross Winchester. Because the road curves going north and south on Winchester, drivers never notice anyone waiting on the corner, or if they do it is too late to stop.

Society never wants to be inconvenienced. If someone got killed at that intersection they would say, "Why wasn't there a light put in?" This time Monte Sereno and Los Gatos didn't wait until that happened. They want to put our children first.

This light was not put in to have a calming affect. This light was not put in to be convenient for drivers. It was put in for the safety of our children and anyone that wants to cross Winchester. I drive down Daves Avenue every day on the way to work. I can turn left without worrying that someone will hit my car. Please stop complaining and thank God we didn't have to wait until someone was dead to have a stoplight put in.

—Star J. Sinclair, Los Gatos


DMV allows plenty of time to smog, even for

I'm surprised that you printed a letter carrying a personal attack (Bill Back's letter of Feb. 5). Officer Rodriguez (whom I have never met) was fulfilling the responsibilities of his job. Had Mr. Back fulfilled his, he wouldn't have received a ticket and wouldn't have to spend his time writing letters of complaint about something he could have avoided.

Mr. Back (whom I have never met) had plenty of time to get his smog check. He was apparently feeling well enough to go to the senior function, so he could have gone for a smog check earlier (days earlier, in fact).

Mr. Back says there were "100 other things that plague seniors" that kept him from getting smogged. Well, I'm a senior too and manage to fit in a smog check in the weeks DMV gives us to do it. So do a zillion people who are working 50 or 80 hours a week.

Most of my generation doesn't blame others for their own actions or inactions. I'm surprised that Mr. Back does. He must be younger than me. Keep up the good work, Officer Rodriguez.

—Ralph Fenesy, Los Gatos


The press should influence public toward liberty

This letter refers to your recent article (Los Gatos Weekly-Times editorial, Feb. 5) about the plight of the local school districts and governments losing funds because Governor Gray Davis—our pay-to-play governor—is now about to dip into local spending to dig himself out of the abyss he created in his first term as California's socialist dictator.

We are all going to regret having allowed this man re-entry into the governor's mansion, but one can only be somewhat sympathetic to the plight of California cities and schools; the (economic) law of natural consequences has caught up with us. The vast majority of newspapers in this state have consistently, for decades, been encouraging readers to vote for big spenders, socialists and intrusive government.

While we seemed to skate by with these spendthrifts during the "dot-com" boom of the last decade, their actions have finally come around to bite us. We now suffer the consequences of our poor choices in elected officials.

When you, the owners and editors of newspapers, understand that socialism is anathema to freedom and prosperity, when you educate the public that character really does count, that liberty comes with personal responsibility and not by government decree, then perhaps you will fulfill the promise and obligation of a free press influencing the population toward liberty and prosperity—and away from tyranny. Wake up and spread the news! Big government leads only to impoverishment and totalitarianism; socialism does not work.

—George Swenson, President, Silicon Valley Taxpayers' Association, Inc.


City council should not govern trees

Words are written by fools like me,
but only God can make a tree.
Councils can kill or let it be
and without their help, so can we.

Where was Monte Sereno City Council when this Valley of Heart's Delight was covered with apricot, cherry and prune blossoms? We might have used them then so that the few of us not living in the fields could enjoy the rapture of the sights and scents of the trees. If those farmers had been blessed with the insight and enforcement of city councils, we might still have fruit from our own backyards instead of Turkish dried apricots and peaches from Chile. Of course, there would not have been so many backyards, fences and rooftops to gaze upon.

When I first came to Monte Sereno, the imposed one-acre lot we bought was completely barren of trees. Now at last count there are 84. Including those that died, were replaced or cut down, there have been over 100 rooted in our soil. Perhaps, in order to comply with the wishes of the council, all should have been registered, but at what point? As acorns, as bare-root stock, or when the grafted limb had taken life?

The two largest oak trees in the place were planted by crows and squirrels; three were peach trees, diseased, then dead. (Perhaps I should not have cut them down.) About 20 are survivors of twig maples and red oaks borrowed from New England's hillsides. Acorns came from Washington, D.C. grounds, from Kew Gardens in London, from Wisconsin, from Big Bear Lake; they sprouted and now live on our acre. Chestnuts from Austria are beginning to lift their arms. One of the majestic towering redwoods, now 8 1/2 feet in circumference, once brushed my crotch as I jumped over it a year or so after it was planted. Our autumn is expanded from September to January by the beauty of the 10 liquid ambers. And there are many other trees to grace our sights.

You may conclude that I enjoy trees, but perhaps, contrary to the supposed wisdom of the council, some have had to go—and just maybe I might know when that time had come better than they. Still, I would not want to be guilty of a broken rule for having managed our trees improperly. One huge eucalyptus broke in the middle of the night and fell across our back lawn. We hired a tree surgeon to complete the removal. Two large ash trees fought for the air and land space. Their stumps are now at peace and separated by our small shed. In 1963 we planted 10 Colorado blue spruces and one split-leaf weeping white birch in memory of a son who died that year. The spruces survived in Monte Sereno's clay soil for a time, but last summer, the last tall one, diseased and dying, was brought down. The white birch has recovered from my surgery, and thrills us yet each spring and fall, as do the pussy willows, the Japanese maples, the Bradford pears, the bright yellow ash, and many, many others. Each of the 84 trees mean something to me, not to a the persons of a council who have not fathered or nurtured it.

Once I managed 108 acres of apricots. I would have been a frustrated farmer then, as I now would be, if I had to obtain the permission to plant or replace my offspring. I remember the home acre was once barren of any trees when I first looked upon it. But who was it that gave my neighbor the right to take out his two acres of prunes and replace them with two huge houses? Just a thought.

Only God can make a tree,
but with his help, so
can we!

And we enjoy your
trees too.

—Mel J. Hulme, Monte Sereno