Letters To The Editor

Thu., Jan. 25, 1996

Incorporation reasons still remain valid

The reasons why the Valley should incorporate have not changed, even though the proposal has been turned down three times.

The reasons Valley citizens defeated city-county consolidation by a margin of 2-to-1 are still there.

The reasons the attempt by Spokane to take over the Valley sewer system was defeated (90.4 percent to 9.6 percent in the Valley) are still there.

The reasons the Valley wants to preserve Valley Fire District No. 1 are still there.

The reasons the Valley should have membership on the Growth Management Steering Committee are still there.

The reasons the Valley should have voting membership on such boards as the Health District and Spokane Transit Authority are still there. Millwood, with only 1,700 people, has voting membership on these. The Valley, with more than 100,000 people, does not.

The Valley has long regarded itself as a unique, single entity. When people ask where we live, the answer is, “the Valley.”

Retired Fire Chief Doug Rider put it best when he said, “It may cost money if the Valley incorporates, but it also will cost money if it doesn’t. He said he would hate to see the Valley fractured into small groups. Vern Slichter Spokane

Freeman principal vindictive toward kids

As a resident of the Freeman School District for 38 years I will think very carefully about how I vote.

Some of us aren’t pleased with the high school principal, Dennis Schuerman. He picks out students he doesn’t like because their grades aren’t perfect or they don’t like sports or other events at school or they smoke or buck the system. The easiest way is to railroad them out of school. It’s my way or the highway.

I’ve heard two students say, “Mr. Schuerman says I can’t go to school at Freeman because my grades aren’t good enough.” They have a right to go to a public school. What do they go to school for - to improve their grades and get a diploma.

I know of three district students who have left Freeman High School in six weeks. Why? Were you on the list of students Mr. Schuerman doesn’t want at Freeman?

Most of us want closed campus, but these students aren’t allowed out of the school building from 8:20 a.m. until 3:10 p.m. Could you imagine getting detention or suspended for this? Is this a school or a jail?

Freeman School District will want more school buildings because the district is getting so large. What for? So the choice students (out of district students) can go there? Sharon Mann-Mamau Valleyford

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