I’ve lived in Chapel Hill for about 20 years, and have watched our recycling efforts with interest, especially the latest move to single-stream recycling.

I know many people who look for paper items at the drop-off sites, and have been doing so for well over 10 years. The single-stream change makes it very difficult to do this.

These people find books and magazines for their reading enjoyment. They get notebooks and magazines to give to inmates at the local prison, after first removing all names and address labels. They get Education Box Tops from cereal boxes and other discarded packaging, to give to local schools to redeem for many thousands of dollars per year. They get clean grocery bags to donate to PTA Thrift Shops for reuse. They get newspaper coupons to help make ends meet. And they find collectibles, memorabilia and historical items.

The county shouldn’t punish these good people for engaging in constructive activity.

There’s no reason why the paper items can’t continue to be separate from bottles and cans at the drop-off sites. I’m asking the county to please change the single-stream policy for the drop-off sites back to the way it was in June.

David Polewka

Chapel Hill

Teacher transfers,

‘wrong thing to do’

There is a negative culture at Chapel Hill High School, however, it not the result of passionate and outspoken teachers like Bert Wartski and Anne Thompson. Instead, the negative culture residing at CHHS is a direct result of the actions of Superintendent Thomas Forcella and the CHCCS administration.

Forcella said that the decisions he made are “best for everyone.” This is fundamentally false. The transfers are, in fact, detrimental to both faculty and students. Forcella's statement that “we always try to match the strengths and style of individuals … and the appropriate place for your employees” in The Chapel Hill News last Sunday is inherently contradictory to the actions of his administration.

Bert Wartski, an A.P. Biology teacher of 19 years, is being involuntarily transferred to East Chapel Hill High School, where he will teach A.P. Environmental Science. By what logic does this make sense? A.P. Biology is Wartski’s expertise; he has even travelled to China in order to lead a workshop on teaching the class.

As a former student of Bert Wartski, words cannot begin to shed light on how much he, and countless other teachers have meant to me during my 12 years in this school system. I have the upmost respect and admiration for Mr. Wartski, I know that Chapel Hill High School is where he belongs. Transferring these teachers is simply the wrong thing to do, and I beseech the school board to take action, and do what is truly right for Chapel Hill High School.

Norman Archer

Put students first

I graduated from Chapel Hill High in 2004, from UNC in 2008, and the UNC School of Public Health in 2010. I am currently employed at the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine conducting research in the Department of Population Health and Pathobiology.

Mr. Wartski was by far one of the best teachers I have ever had, be it CHHS or UNC. He had a gift at making complex biological systems seem easy and straight forward. He also truly cared about his students. I took A.P. bio my senior year. During that last semester I had a bad case of senioritis. None of my other teachers noticed a drop in my participation and grades, but Mr. Wartski did. He pulled me aside after class and said he had noticed I was not working up to my potential and asked what was going on. While I didn’t like being called out at the time, he had my best interests at heart. Thanks to him I finished the year strong.

Mr. Wartski also instills great learning and study skills. He encourages students to write down notes on a flashcards. This method of rewriting your notes and important concepts saved me in many of my college courses, be them biology or history. While many of my fellow classmates at UNC were struggling with molecular and cell biology courses, I had already been exposed to many of the concepts and was far ahead of the other students. I even went back to my notes and diagrams from Mr. Wartski's class to enrich sections I was having problems wrapping my head around.

I ask the school board to please put the interests of the students ahead of their own so that others at Chapel Hill High can benefit, as I, did from his outstanding instruction and mentoring.

Emma Susick

Chapel Hill

Teachable

moment?

What is the big outcry? Mr. Wartski is being moved to a school five miles away where students also need teachers. Other fine teachers are not fortunate enough to even find teaching positions, and there is whining about this? Stop the public outcry.

Give students a valuable lesson about leadership – Don't act like a child and teach where needed.

Graham Paulsgrove

Raspberries

to editorial

Raspberries to the Chapel Hill News for giving raspberries to Orange County cyclists. You didn’t do your homework.

According to your July 4 editorial, during the repaving work on Dairyland Road a few cyclists decided the rules didn’t apply to them and “ignored the flaggers with their stop signs and pedaled on through.” t looks like you took that information from reporter Bruce Siceloff’s N&O story.

Too bad you didn’t read Mr. Siceloff’s follow-up story, online next to the original story, in which he reported that “maybe it wasn’t head-strong bicyclists” who caused the problem and relayed the other side of the story from a cyclist who was there – the cyclists waited for five minutes when the flagger told them to stop, lined up behind the pilot truck and cars, fell behind because of the distance they had to travel, and then had to contend with the pilot truck and cars coming back at them!

As the cyclist put it, imagine the group’s surprise and indignation when everyone treated them as if they were in the wrong when they were doing exactly what they had been told. I felt the same when I saw the incomplete reporting in your paper. As a driver and cyclist, I could write more about what I see on the roads and what might help people share a limited resource. But, one point is clear. Bad reporting doesn’t help the situation and may make it worse.

John Rubin

Orange County