WW welcomes letters to the editor via mail, e-mail or fax. Letters must be signed by the author and include the author's street address and phone number for verification. Preference will be given to letters of 250 words or less. Back To Schools I was saddened and disappointed by your front-page article about Assistant School Superintendent Linda Harris ["Head of the Class," Sept. 8, 1999]. Saddened because you have seriously damaged the reputation of an honorable, conscientious administrator and disappointed because the selective facts cited in the article to discredit Ms. Harris are often wrong and completely out of context considering Ms. Harris' overall record at the district. The general theme of the article was that Ms. Harris "possesses a troubling record of financial mismanagement" which "calls into question her qualifications for the second-highest position" in the school district. Let me be clear: Linda Harris does not possess a troubling record of financial mismanagement. Quite the contrary. Linda Harris has managed, in her 28-year career at the district, literally millions of dollars of district funds and grant funds without any material irregularities or instances of financial mismanagement. Let me give you just three examples of how your article selectively distorts the full picture. You say that in 1997-98, while principal of Woodlawn Elementary School, "Harris overspent her discretionary budget...by $3,000." She explained to your reporter that these expenditures were for educational software, which, she was told, would be covered by a separate special software budget, but a subsequent legal/accounting decision reversed that allocation. What your article doesn't say is that during the 1997-98 school year, Woodlawn School underspent its $1,829,005 total budget by $35,365, or about 2 percent. Furthermore, because budgets are created 12-18 months before spending occurs, the district often permits minor deviations in budget categories. I think this is consistent with the way most businesses fiscally manage their operating units. Second, your article states that during 1997-98 Harris overspent her Title I money and that "exceeding Title I budgets by even a penny is prohibited, according to Franklin" (Heidi Franklin, the district controller). Here are the facts: Your reporter was told by Ms. Franklin that Woodlawn's Title I budget of $215,437 was overspent by $356.17 and that the district has the legal discretion to reallocate funds among various schools to cover such deviations. What is legally prohibited is to overspend the total District Title I budget. In fact, in that year the District underspent its $10,708,101 Title I budget by $175,000. Another of the article's damaging conclusions is that Ms. Harris appears "not to understand basic procedures involving grant money." This conclusion is drawn from one isolated example in which Ms. Harris used plain English instead of accounting terminology (money vs. expenses) to describe how she wanted a particular accounting transaction handled. In fact, the transaction was recorded correctly on the District's books as Ms. Harris intended. The point is that an experienced administrator who has processed and utilized millions of dollars of grant money to improve student achievement in her schools is accused of grant-accounting ignorance because she used one incorrect accounting word. I know it is virtually impossible to restore a person's damaged reputation after an article is published like the one you did on Linda Harris, but let me say this on her behalf: I believe Linda Harris is a gifted educator, an honest and honorable person and a completely trustworthy fiscal manager. I am proud to have a person of her caliber and experience leading our elementary schools toward higher levels of achievement. As I told your reporter, nothing he brought to my attention as a result of his investigation changes my opinion about Linda Harris in the least. Benjamin O. Canada Superintendent Portland Public Schools Nigel Jaquiss writes: With all due respect to the superintendent, the central point of the story was the Portland Public School District's decision to ignore the findings of its own audit, an audit that found that "significant violations relate to use of student-body funds to benefit staff members rather than students." As for his specific point that Harris underspent Woodlawn's $1.8 million budget: In fact, Harris only had control of about 2.5 percent of that budget. Of the funds she controlled, she overspent her consolidated and Title I budgets and misspent student-body funds. Imagine There's No Heaven Harley Jamieson's letter on the Scouts [Letters, WW, Sept. 22, 1999] asked, "if God is deleted from the equation," what besides "pure self-interest" and "fear of punishment" would keep people from being unkind to each other, ignoring how most discrimination and intolerance seems to be perpetrated by people enforcing the codes of their unkind God. But his letter does remind me of how so many people think their belief in a separate God makes them more noble, even though, according to what they say, only such fear of punishment apparently keeps them from being unkind. And they feel that people who don't need this belief and who are compassionate to other people out of the goodness of their own hearts (rather than from selfish fear) are immoral and intolerable. Isn't this backwards? Chris Vice's letter claimed "WW is biased against religion." I wouldn't blame you after looking at the logic of those vocally representing religion. Tom Soppe Northeast Fremont Street Board Stiff As a KBOO staff member for the past 14 months, I can attest that Sean Cruz is right about one thing: Sometimes working with board members can be frustrating ["¿Qué Pasa, KBOO?," WW, Oct. 6, 1999]. The example that leaps to mind occurred last spring, when a member of the board suggested that KBOO declare March 31, the birthday of Cesar Chavez, an official holiday, and do programming honoring Chavez's legacy. The board agreed unanimously, and the staff was likewise thrilled with the idea--especially when that board member said he'd help plan and supervise the whole day and bring in bilingual volunteers to help staff the phones (since Cesar's birthday fell during our spring pledge drive). On March 31, that board member was a no-show. None of his promises materialized. On what was supposed to be an important day for KBOO and our Hispanic listeners, we had to punt. It was the most exasperating experience I have had in dealing with a member of the KBOO Board of Directors. That board member was, of course, Sean Cruz. His actions on that day speak more loudly to me than any of the words quoted in your article. Janice Leber KBOO Volunteer Coordinator Southeast 8th Avenue Radio, Radio I am writing in response to your article on KBOO and Sean Cruz (¿Qué Pasa, KBOO?, WW, Oct. 6, 1999). Cruz claims KBOO ignored Latino issues, and yet KBOO broadcasts 14 hours of Latino music and affairs every week (including The Nick and Molly Show, considered one of the best salsa shows in the country), more than any other radio station. Maybe the problem is that KBOO ignored Cruz's particular Latino agenda. Isn't there enough Christianity and crucifixes shoveled up by other radio stations (KLVP, KBVM, KPDQ, KPAM, KKSL, KKPZ) as well as countless cable TV networks? Doesn't "liberal" get thrown around as a four-letter-word every four years? We are in an age of corporate media dominance, where even OPB and PBS are financed by multiconglomerates more than by listeners like you. The big money pulling the puppet strings of the media-ocracy is conservative and unwilling to take risks or offend advertisers or large contributors. KBOO is one of the few counter-voices to this corporate media blitz. KBOO and its member-elected board will probably always have internal conflict of some sort. That's how things work when everyone has a voice, because people will naturally disagree with each other. A dictatorship or a corporate power structure is more efficient than a democracy or co-op; look how quickly Hitler turned around the German economy before World War II. The choice is a smooth-running station of monotony that's controlled by a CEO, or a place where you can hear an incredible variety of music and news from many diverse viewpoints that have been shut out of all those boring mainstream radio stations. Rolf Semprebon Southeast 21st Avenue - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Willamette Week | originally published October 13, 1999