Addressing Letters and Marquee Messages

Jeanne M. Marks of Van Nuys writes: I have never been inside of Burbank High School, but I have driven by on many occasions . From the outside it does not look so bad. Your description of the gym alone made me cringe in disbelief. I cannot believe that the city of Burbank would allow it to get so bad . . .

Thank you, Jeanne, for easing my guilt.

You see, when the $100-million bond measure to modernize the old, worn-out campuses in the Burbank Unified School District failed at the ballot recently, I wondered whether it might be my fault. A majority of voters--53%--voted in favor of the measure that would have increased property taxes by about $33 per $100,000 in assessed valuation, but fell well short of the two-thirds necessary for passage.

Loyal readers (and I’m sure that means all of you) may recall that, after describing the crummy conditions at 70-year-old Burbank High, I noted the Bulldogs, as Burbank’s teams and students are known, could use a new kennel. Ha ha ha.

Jeanne, a 17-year-old senior at Village Christian School, reassured me that not all readers wondered whether Burbank students should be treated like dogs.

One suspects that many voters, like Jeanne, drive past and assume the school just needs a fresh coat of paint. I wonder how many of the 47% who voted no took a tour of Burbank High, including the boys’ locker room that coaches refer to as “the dungeon.” Some officials suggest that many voters, especially senior citizens, fail to understand the need for adequate air conditioning in classrooms equipped with computers and other aspects of high technology.

School officials are still puzzling about what went wrong. And they promise they’ll try again.

Meanwhile, there’s some better news from Woodland Hills . . .

Betty Korengold of Tarzana writes:

TAFT ACA DECA

GREAT TEAM/GREAT COACH

BEST IN USA

This is what Korengold, a Taft High parent, wrote on the old school marquee at the corner of Ventura Boulevard and Winnetka Avenue to honor Taft’s national championship in the Academic Decathlon and coach Art Berchin.

At least that’s what the sign said Monday morning. I hope it’s intact today.

Betty Korengold is the mother of a Taft senior and two Taft grads, one of whom competed on the 1988 Academic Decathlon team. She is also the keeper of the school marquee. She puts the top down on her convertible to make room for a stepladder and changes the message every week or so.

She initially contacted me after reading a column last month concerning Taft’s victory in the statewide competition. “THE AMPIONS,” the sign had said.

Korengold wanted to let me know that the letters didn’t fall off during an aftershock. When she went over to repair the sign, she found the metal letters had been stolen, and “only a few broken pieces of the metal letters were on the ground.” The sign had been vandalized.

Now, it’s possible that vandals were little more than pranksters. Teen-agers could find a variety of uses for those letters. How many of us decorated friends’ homes with toilet paper, Barbasol and those blinking construction warning signs?

Korengold, however, suspects that the vandals were students who resented the attention accorded Taft’s academic heroes. “I almost fear for a Tonya Harding syndrome,” she says.

We live in treacherous times, but the motives may have been less sinister.

Why, at my old high school, teachers and students arrived one morning to find a truly remarkable sight. The lunch tables had been stacked to form a pyramid. And crowning this monument was a familiar plastic lad taken from the local Bob’s Big Boy.

Not that I’m trying to give kids today any ideas.

Which leaves one last topic . . .

Barbara Whitebirch of Reseda writes:

I brought your article “Earthquake Set Her Poetry in Motion” to work. There are at least three people that have asked me to find out if there is any way to order this book. Is there any way to order “In the Wake of the Quake,” by Geri Forer Spagnoli??????

Six question marks require an answer. But let’s get this straight: I am not the secretary of the Geri Spagnoli Fan Club!!!!!!

Spagnoli’s seismic sonnets and quaking couplets, featured here recently, have inspired more mail than columns advocating tougher gun control. And we all know how gunslingers love to take aim and fire.

Several readers have written or called to ask how to order copies. Among them was a schoolteacher who wanted several copies for her classroom. Another was a psychotherapist who has found humor to be good medicine in helping quake victims cope. (I’m still partial to this one: Methinks there is no bigger cheater/Than the guy who fixed my water heater. )

I’ve passed on those requests to the author, who is asking $3 for her self-published work. By popular demand, here’s her address: Geri Spagnoli, 4227 Freedom Drive, Suite 305, Calabasas 91302.

Or as the poet might say:

Methinks there is no better ending

Than the address we print for letter-sending.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to Harris at the Times Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, Calif. 91311.

I wonder how many of the 47% who voted no took a tour of Burbank High, including the boys’ locker room that coaches refer to as “the dungeon.”