Letters to the editor

To the Editor:

I request that the Wrangell School Board take action to change the number of credits for a Wrangell High School diploma to be the same as the State of Alaska. I understand that the current credit requirement for a high school diploma in Wrangell is greater than the State of Alaska. That higher standard in Wrangell would cause students to take more classes and receive broader education, but it could also cause some students not to receive a high school diploma. This loss of potential graduates is the larger concern to me.

Each day the media tells us of the lifelong effects a high school diploma (and higher education) has on a person’s earning power for the rest of their life. I believe that failure to achieve a high school diploma imposes a great social and personal stigma on that person. Every effort should be made to avoid anything which would lower our students’ future quality of life, especially borderline students.

If Wrangell were to adopt the State requirement, the superior students will continue to aim high and take course work above the State requirement. But more important, a high school diploma would be available to more of the less capable students. More students would graduate. Less would “fall through the cracks.” Less of our young people would experience the lifelong label of “high school dropout.”

Those young people would be spared the feelings of failure which would negatively shape their entire lives. The goal of the school should be to support the students and allow as many students as possible to enjoy the lifelong benefits of success and a high school diploma.

Dave Rak

To the Editor:

I drive to work all around our pretty town and I have enjoyed all of our manicured lawns, from the schools, the City Hall and the Post Office lawns, and all of the private homes with lawns, and flowers in the yards. I have admired all of the hard work these people have done to help beautify our city.

What really irritates me is to see grown people let their dogs run loose and “poop” on these lawns. I actually saw one man turn two yellow labs loose on the Post Office lawn so they could do their thing. Then he called them and left. Another time I saw a woman walking a large dog on a leash, on the sidewalk near the radio station. She held him with the leash, while he did his “thing” on someone’s lawn.

I should think that these people could find a place near the wooded areas or down near the waterfront to walk their dogs.

Or perhaps the city could pass an ordinance to fine these people and or invest in “doggie” containers with plastic bags to clean up their own dogs’ “messes”, until then people could carry grocery bags to pick up after their dogs.

Jeannie Lindley