Prius and roadside no place for a butt
As the happy owner of a Prius, I was much dismayed to read the "Editor's Scratchpad" by Nancy Christenson about seeing a cigarette stub tossed out of the Prius she had been admiring as an ecological asset to our islands (Star-Bulletin, June 22).I was slightly relieved to read that the car had a lot of what sounds like advertising written on its sides. The driver must not have been a typical Prius owner.
Would a Prius owner smoke? The car comes without ashtrays.
Bart Mathias
Honolulu
Why the outcry about fishing licenses?
Regarding "Recreational fishermen criticize license plan" (Star-Bulletin, June 24): Here in California, we have been paying for recreational fishing licenses for years, as I far back as I can remember. I've lived in California since 1953, after living in Hawaii.
A. Sonny Palabrica
San Francisco, Calif.
BOE rated Hamamoto too favorably
The Board of Education gave Superintendent Pat Hamamoto a favorable rating on her recent job evaluation (Star-Bulletin, June 11). However, the evaluation did not include the most important criterion for assessing her performance. The evaluation form shows that Hamamoto was rated on many of the criteria typical of an evaluation of this sort, such as setting goals and managing finances. Missing, however, was the criterion of improving the quality of education.The quality of education and whether it has advanced or regressed over time are best determined by annual statewide tests because the scores can be compared from one year to the next. If test scores improve, it would be reasonable to conclude that the quality of education has also improved.
Each year, Hawaii's public school students in certain grades take the Stanford Achievement Test and the Hawaii Content and Performance Test. Hamamoto has been superintendent for two and a half years now, so these test scores should be improving if she has been doing her job well. However, Hamamoto herself reported to the BOE several months ago that the scores for both of these tests declined in 2003, falling even below levels that were already low in 2002.
The superintendent should be held responsible for these declining test scores. It is inconceivable that the BOE gave her a favorable job evaluation when the quality of education has deteriorated during her tenure. Apparently, the BOE is in denial about the ineffectiveness of the superintendent. Something is very wrong.
John Kawamoto
Honolulu
Prison staff plants seeds of rehabilitation
The Waiawa Correctional Facility is ground-breaking in its rehabilitation of the 300 men who have worked their way through the Department of Public Safety's Incarcerations Division.High above Pearl City, the Waiawa compound is a working and educational facility. Worklines include farm, orchard, building maintenance, kitchen, electrical, plumbing, landscape and several others.
I am proud to be a member of the educational workline, where I assist in the operating of the many educational classes offered. Among the classes are G.E.D., pre-secondary education, parenting, drug treatment, art, ukulele, adult basic education and Hawaiian language.
Waiawa's Kash Box program is a humanistic, therapeutic living environment. I am a Kash Box graduate. While at Kash Box, I attended A/A, N/A, group counseling and a host of coping-skills classes such as anger management, grieving, relapse prevention, goal setting and life review.
The other day our warden, Ted Sakai, stood in front of the education unit. In one hand he held a garden rake; with the other he shook an inmate's hand as our education director, Renee, stood beaming. Together they are planting the seeds of rehabilitation.
Michael Spiker
Inmate Waiawa Correctional Facility
Public deserve to know cause of 'Dobellacle'
In the Evan Dobellacle, if he was indeed fired "for cause," let the cause be made public so we, too, can help send him packing.If instead it was hubris on the part of the University of Hawaii regents and their appointee, let them bear the cost of his contract buyout.
Victor Meyers
Kailua
