Many thanks to the power company workers who started promptly to restore power after the July 24 storm: the tree workers who came to repair the damage; and the public works people who had to clear it away!

Dana Mochel

Carrboro

Job well done

The storm on July 24 left me with four trees down in my yard. One of the trees was a giant pine that blocked my driveway and half the road.

When the storm ended, I joined some neighbors in starting to cut away some branches that were blocking the road. However, before we could get far with the project, a DOT truck pulled up with three crew members armed with chain saws. In no time they had cut up the part of the pine blocking the road and the driveway and moved the pieces to the side of the road. At this point, they got a call and headed off to take care of another tree on 54.

That night I was able to hire a crew to cut up the rest of the pine and the other three trees and bring them to the road. This morning, a crew came by and hauled away all the logs and branches.

Civil servants often get criticized. I just want to thank the crews for a job well done here in Laurel Hills.

Scott Goldsmith

Chapel Hill

Wartski, a most effective teacher

I was saddened by the re-assignment decision made by Superintendent Forcella regarding Mr. Wartski. Public outcry has been vociferous and unaddressed.

CHCCS educated both of my children and both have become highly productive citizens. Mr. Wartski was one of the most effective teachers in this process. He created excitement in the study of biology and college level learning. Equally important, parents were engaged. The CHCCS system worked.

I have no doubt that the stability and standard of excellence provided by Mr. Wartski was critical to this and that stability of other leading educators in the system may now been threatened. I continue to pay exceptionally high property taxes to support this school system with the belief that this enables today’s students to have the same high-quality education. I hope that information not being provided to the public is sufficient to warrant this hazardous decision.

David S. Warner

Chapel Hill

Hard to understand

As a parent who had two children at Chapel Hill High, 2004-12, I am confused and concerned about the involuntary transfers of two teachers. Whatever the reasons, actions and comments make these transfers look punitive. It’s hard for me to understand why these two teachers were singled out.

Change can be a positive catalyst, but to be effective it needs to be introduced in a positive manner. The perceived negative environment did not develop overnight or during the last year. Administrators at Lincoln Center should have been working all along to correct problems they saw. Why should two teachers be made to pay the price for something not their making?

As a parent, I question the message these actions send to students in the Chapel Hill Carrboro school system. Shouldn’t we teach students the importance and value of negotiating and working together? Also, shouldn’t we be teaching students to respect the opinions of others? Most importantly shouldn’t we teach our students to respect and value teachers who work so diligently to make our school system the best in the state?

If the superintendent’s goal is to build an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect his actions do little to build trust. The culture change he feel needs to be made cannot be dictated, culture change comes with team work. My plea to him and the school board is to choose a new principal who is willing to listen to students, parents, and teachers, who understands the culture of the school, and who is not afraid to ask questions and make decisions.

It weighs heavily on my heart these valued teachers are being treated without respect for their long years of service. Opposition is not entirely about losing Chapel Hill High teachers to “rival” schools, it’s about their being treated with disrespect and using them as examples for a situation they are not responsible for creating.

Cathy Chiesa

Chapel Hill

University transfer

This is following up on my earlier letter on this subject. Since Mr. Wartski’s appeal of his transfer has been denied and he is being forced to teach environmental science at East Chapel Hill High, it is best that his expertise and passion to teach advanced biology is utilized elsewhere.

Mr. Wartski is very capable of teaching freshman biology at the university level. So I request the University of North Carolina hire him to teach freshman biology. This way his experience and passion to teach young minds is best served. I hope everyone understands the situation.

P. Anantha Reddy

Chapel Hill

Remember,

it started here

As we celebrate the discovery of a new particle, which will probably turn out to be the massive fundamental particle predicted by Peter Higgs, it is worth remembering that the theoretical paper that gave the impetus to the CERN experiments was written while Higgs spent a year at the Bahnson Institute of Field Physics at UNC-CH as a postdoctoral research associate. Although the work was started and a short letter published before Higgs came to Chapel Hill, the article was published in the Physical Review in May 1966 under the following heading:

“Spontaneous Symmetry Breakdown without Massless Bosons”

Peter W. Higgs,

Department of Physics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. on leave from the Tait Institute of Mathematical Physics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Eugen Merzbacher

Kenan Professor Emeritus

Department of Physics and Astronomy

UNC-Chapel Hill

Editor’s note: This letter was also signed by Bruce W. Carney, Samuel Baron Distinguished Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost; Arthur E. Champagne, William C. Friday Professor of Physics; Christopher J. Clemens, Professor and Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy; Thomas B. Clegg, Distinguished Professor of Physics; Cecile DeWitt-Morette, Jane and Roland Blumberg Centennial Professor, Emerita, University of Texas at Austin Department of Physics; Louise Dolan, Professor of Physics; Alfred T. Goshaw, James B. Duke Professor of Physics, Duke University; Edward Gross, Retired Staff Physicist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory; U.S. Department of Energy; Laura Mersini-Houghton, Associate Professor of Physics; Berndt Mueller, J. B. Duke Professor and Director of the Center for Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences, Duke University; Yee Jack Ng, Kenan Professor of Physics; Stephen M. Shafroth, Professor of Physics, Emeritus; Hendrik Van Dam, Emeritus Professor of Physics.