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Thursday's letters: School Board member's promise unfulfilled

 
Published Jan. 28, 2015

Harris explains why Elia had to go | Jan. 24, Sue Carlton column

Candidate's promise goes unmet

Hillsborough County School Board member Sally Harris is quoted as saying she almost abstained in the vote to fire superintendent MaryEllen Elia. She was apparently torn between Elia's very high skill level at her job and Elia's communication gap with three School Board members.

Harris' campaign material promotes her as being "recognized widely for her ability to find the best in any person and help them foster success," and goes on to say that "Sally will now take her expertise to the Hillsborough County School Board."

Despite this, and very soon after her election, Harris simply could not find the time to try to bring out the best in either the three School Board members or Elia. For the integrity of the School Board and the benefit of the school system, it would have been far better for Harris to have had the backbone to abstain and make an effort to use the "bring out the best" magic she claims to possess instead of immediately casting the deciding vote to fire a superintendent with nationally recognized talent.

Before we had a personality clash with some hurt feelings. Now we have a major mess.

Robert Silverman, Wimauma

Hillsborough's way forward after Elia Jan. 25, editorial

Job 1: Keep board happy

As a retired school administrator, I was saddened by the termination of Hillsborough County school superintendent MaryEllen Elia. I was not surprised because it became evident that she forgot to attend to the No. 1 requirement of the job: maintaining the support of at least four board members. As my mentor told me, the first priority is to service your board; only then can you work to improve the educational opportunities for all students.

Servicing the board has increasingly become more than a full-time job. In Florida, board members are given offices and a salary, major inducements to meddle in the operation of a school district rather than set policy and hold the administration responsible for the operation of the schools.

In Illinois, board members meet once or twice a month (I liked once), and are not provided private offices. Even with those blessings, by the end of my career I was spending 80 percent of my time keeping my board happy.

Hillsborough will have a hard time finding any creditable administrator to fill Elia's shoes. When Pinellas County hired one of the most respected search firms in the nation, Hazard and Young, the best they could find was a book salesman from Mississippi who headed a system with fewer than 3,000 students. Don't waste any more of the district's money. Look for a new superintendent from a "red state" who went to school with a winning football team and majored in professional pandering.

John Mason, Clearwater

7 Pier ideas go to next stage | Jan. 24

Mean-spirited cut

The Pier selection committee decision to eliminate the Ahha! group's design, the Crescent, from the final eight just weeks from public hearings at the Coliseum on Feb. 11-12 seems political, mean-spirited and against the public interest. Now six of the remaining seven designs are about renovating the existing Pier. The citizens and all the design firms need a reasonable, fair and detailed explanation of the committee decision. Anything less is a disservice to the selection process.

Douglas Land, St. Petersburg

Services for disabled

Media focus missing

My wife, daughter and I were recently invited to participate in a news conference designed to celebrate increased numbers of disabled Floridians who are receiving special services through a program that has been strongly encouraged by Gov. Rick Scott.

A great deal of preparation went into the planning to make this celebration noteworthy. Leaders from the Association for Persons with Disabilities and individual families made considerable efforts to make the event newsworthy. A number of individuals with special needs were present. Loving and caring staff associated with providing for special-needs individuals were present and excited about the progress being made.

Although members of the media attended, it appeared that they could not have cared less. Their interest was to pounce on the governor about recent, potentially controversial activities associated with the departure of a state employee from his position of leadership in law enforcement.

Shame on the media for missing an opportunity to highlight the efforts associated with services to our special needs population in Florida.

David A. Sherbine, Lakeland

Don't punish families' hard work Jan. 24, letter

History of higher rates

This letter said that "imposing a 20-percent-plus tax on a $10 million appreciation" in the value of a business or farm "will most certainly guarantee it will not survive to the next generation." That bears some examination.

For a half-century after 1942, the tax rate on long-term capital gains was above 25 percent, reaching a high of 35 percent under President Richard Nixon. Family farms and businesses did quite well throughout that period. In 1997, the tax dropped to 20 percent, and then dropped further, to 15 percent, under President Barack Obama. And it was in those latter two decades that giant corporations swallowed up family farms and businesses.

It appears that the decline of family farms has not been due to taxation but rather to the fact that corporate farming giants have forced the family farmer out of business. And it was not taxation that "guaranteed that a family business did not survive to the next generation," it was Wal-Mart and the like enjoying huge tax givebacks.

Want to return to the golden economy of the Eisenhower years? The marginal income tax rate on income above $400,000 was 91 percent. The rich stayed rich and the middle class thrived. "A 20-percent-plus tax on a $10 million appreciation" would still be lower than it ever was during our country's economic golden years.

Robert Sterling, St. Petersburg