Tennis bubble not protected

Re: Oak Bay tennis bubble won’t burst again, Oak Bay News, Nov, 5

As a frequent user of the said bubble I wish to make a few comments about Vivian Moreau’s feel good article.

It is noble that Ed Bakker was ‘on duty’ till 23:00 on Halloween, protecting Oak Bay property.

However that raises a few questions:Was he on salary or was he volunteering? Why did he end his watch at 23:00? Teenagers and other possible threats do not simply retreat at 23:00 on Halloween. Or does Ed or yourself possess intelligence/data to support that all threats cease at that time on Halloween?

And the new bubble. The original was destroyed by fire in a trash can. I am not a fire expert, but I would suggest that such a fire was far from spontaneous.

There is no control as to who enters that facility. Some two years ago, a teenage male rushed in the door around 21:00 and yelled out something unintelligible and threw a juice bottle of urine on court five.

Maintenance staff, after the event was reported to the front desk, turned up 10 minutes later and used a mere cloth to clean up.

We were not impressed. There is no control over who walks in from a dark parking lot from a dark field next door to the new $180,000 facility. The door is unlocked till at least 22:00 hours. There are no security cameras, the installation of which would be a fraction of the $180,000 replacement cost, to capture an image of the next one who will one day repeat the damage.

And did you ask, while researching for this story, what measures, apart from Ed’s Halloween duty, were in place to protect this public investment.

The fact that insurance covers most of the cost is irrelevant.We all pay for the cost of insurance. I do not believe there are measures in effect to protect against a repeat.

Paul Downie

Saanich

District needs trustees dedicated to universal education

Re: Volunteerism vital to our public schools, Letters, Nov. 5

The letter by retired teacher/principal, Maurice Preece was misleading. As someone who mentored against disingenuous and false information he now resorts to the same.

His assertions that the Victoria Public Education Coalition (VPEC) is a front for the Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association are incorrect. I sit on the executive of VPEC and am a retired clergyman. I’m not and never have been a teacher – not that I consider teaching a profession made up of self-serving people. VPEC is a majority ‘lay’ organization with people from all walks of life – including some teachers. His second error was to suggest that VPEC and its three trustee candidates would stop parents from volunteering in their children’s schools. Nothing could be further from the truth and Mr. Preece should know better than to suggest it.

The central issue is the provincial government’s underfunding of public education.

Education Minister Shirley Bond and her associates have used every trick in the book to strip resources and funding from school districts, forcing school boards to make up the difference through school fees, fundraising by PACs, and resulting in understaffing of special programs and activities.

Translated, that has meant parents and teachers either must volunteer their services or programs can’t be offered.

Rev. Dale Perkins

Victoria

Trustees need to pressure province

Re: Trustees play critical role in school funding, Oak Bay News, Nov. 5

Thank you for your excellent article highlighting the impact on our public schools of provincial underfunding. In it you quote SFU Education Program Coordinator Colin Chow: “Trustees are essentially the hatchet men and women for the provincial government.” Frustratingly, this describes our current Greater Victoria School Trustees too well. For the last three years, and longer, they have been quietly administering provincial funding cuts by overcrowding classrooms, closing schools, selling public lands, and charging students user fees for educational programs. 

The Victoria Public Education Coalition (VPEC) is working to put pressure on the provincial government to adequately fund our public schools. One way they’re doing this is by supporting strong trustee candidates who will insist on full funding to meet the needs of our students, schools and programs. We need to support candidates who will work to build community pressure to make the provincial government provide those funds.

Patrick Schreck

Co-chair of VCPEC

Halloween bonfire not infamous

Re: Trick or Treat, Oak Bay News, Nov. 5

My dictionary gives me as definitions of “infamous”  the following: of ill fame, notoriously vile or evil, abominable, (Law) deprived of all or some rights of citizen on account of a serious crime. In which way is the annual bonfire in Firemen’s Park infamous? Or is Sarah Palin reporting for you now?

K. Stewart

Oak Bay