Traveler Payzant

Prior to the close of the 1990-91 school year, a mandatory tour of several school sites should be included in Payzant’s travel itinerary. His transportation would be provided by one of the school buses, with his pickup point being no further than 1 mile from his residence. He would be required to arrive 10 minutes before the appointed time and remain 30 minutes past that time before phoning the transportation office for a sweeper bus.

His tour would include the first-grade class that has run out of paper supplies, despite 12 weeks remaining in the school year. He would travel on to the GATE algebra classes that were without textbooks for the first six weeks of the school year. Various teachers and students, whose classes are scheduled in bungalows, could describe the temperature variations experienced--shivering chill in the winter months and debilitating heat in the late spring and early fall.

His travels would be incomplete without a visit to the nurses’ and counselors’ offices of those individuals about to be terminated for the 1991-92 school year. He could explain to the juniors and seniors the reasoning contributing to the removal of their counselors.

The treatment received by teachers and students in California’s second-largest city necessitates witnessing firsthand by its superintendent and not related secondhand by his aides.

SHERYL HARRIS, San Diego