Student attendance = income Here’s a little known fact: Every day a student attends school it produces income for that school. It’s that simple. In the SDUSD budget proposal there are very few options to increase income for the district schools. One of those items is to increase student attendance by .5% for next year equaling an income of $3 million! Every stakeholder in this budget process must make changes – so, instead of pulling your student out of class on Friday for that three day weekend in Mammoth, or making that doctor appointment in the morning instead of the afternoon you could be part of the income solution to the district’s budget woes. Each student must be in their chair at the start of the day. If you absolutely have to take your student out of school for an appointment, make it after noon. If we all pull together and get the word out on how important this income is to the school sites then we as informed parents/guardians can earn the SDUSD their .5% – let’s go for 1% and earn $6 million to save important programs like music and the arts, sports and JROTC. Let’s do our part and expect the other stakeholders to do theirs. Pat Hom Parent MBHS FOPBSS President MBHS Band Booster Treasurer MBHS SSC Member In reply to Francis Zimmerman’s letter, “No Guns in Schools; Train elsewhere” It is interesting to me that a former SDUSD board trustee for 8 years was quoted as saying “The fact that air-riflery are part of JROTC training came as news to me…” Marksmanship programs have been in eight of the SDUSD high schools for years, some for over 40 years, yet this fact was unknown to Ms. Zimmerman, and was apparently not a problem. It’s interesting that marksmanship could go on successfully, without incident, until now – and still without incident. This successful program is at the mercy of another group’s political agenda. What a shame. Pat Hom Parent, MBHS FOPBSS President MBHS Band Booster Treasurer MBHS SSC Member “Just the facts, Ma’am.” I read with interest Ms. Zimmerman’s “No guns in schools; train elsewhere” letter. I respect her views. However I’d like to know where she got the information from which she made her decision. Perhaps Ms. Zimmerman is unaware that firearms marksmanship is an Olympic sport and ranks second only to track and field events. She apparently does not know that no accidents have occurred in the schools while engaged in this sport/training. Compare this statistic with say football (this is a no-brainer), baseball, basketball, tennis, water sports…the list can go on. Some schools have cooking classes; knives are used. Blood is not flowing in the halls. Sewing is also taught; needles are used. This does not create drug users. The mental and physical conditioning required for rifle marksmanship can be compared to golf. Rifle shooting is similar to golf in that it is very strenuous on the mind and the physical condition. Once you’ve squeezed that trigger, that’s it. If you do wrong, you can’t make up for it by being super careful on the next one. That’s it. You must have an alert mind and be in excellent physical condition. Ms. Zimmerman, please base your statements on facts. According to the law, if you base your decision on false data, your decision is false. As Sgt. Joe Friday would say, “Just the facts Ma’am.” Ed Rosemann Pacific Beach