Shedding Light on Another Problem

I read with interest the article, “Daylight Dilemma,” [Oct. 13]. The article pointed out the lack of lights at 15 City Section schools and how Crenshaw High was working at getting them installed at a cost of $150,000, of which the school would have to raise half. The coach, a Robert Garrett, went on to state, “One of my goals here is to win some championships, but more importantly I want to leave this community with some lights.”

I sympathize with the school’s lack of field lighting, but I think there needs to be some perspective put on this. My daughter attends an LAUSD Magnet school that not only has no field lights, it has no field. There is no football team and no basketball team. They play soccer away and practice on an asphalt yard. There is no track, half of what yard they have is covered with bungalows to allow the business of schools, which is teaching, to go on.

The school is scheduled for a new gymnasium to replace the one that can’t be used due to falling ceiling tile. It is waiting for earthquake retrofitting on other buildings to finish.

It is also among the highest ranked schools in LAUSD for students going on to university education. Maybe the $150,000 slated for field lights could be used to help get some of Crenshaw’s students into a university or buy needed textbooks, rather than something to be used only once a week.

Michael D. Roberts

Los Angeles