Online paper,

Love the new Statesman online layout! All of the features are user friendly, and maneuverability is a breeze.

Kudos to the designer and Statesman!

Lori Rascoe,

Chandler

Attention sixth grade parents,

If you have a child in the 6th grade band, please read this letter out loud because they need to hear it.

This past Tuesday the 6th grade band, comprised of students from the Brownsboro and Chandler intermediate schools, went to Sandy Lake Park in Carrollton for a band competition. They received a rating of "2," with "1" being the best.

After talking to some of the students, I know that many of them feel bad about their performance that day. Some feel cheated, and I know that they have been told that receiving a rating of 2 is unacceptable.

I attended the competition, as did many other parents. I sat in the competition tent and listened to other bands play before our band entered. The bands I heard sounded similar ... some better than others, but mostly on the same playing level. I expected to hear the same thing from our band, but within the first 10 seconds of hearing them I was blown away. I was surprised, astonished and PROUD of those kids. I don't say this because I'm biased. They were just REALLY GOOD. Some parents had tears in their eyes. Parents with other bands were asking what grade level our band was on. I watched people enter the tent to listen to them ... watched them smile and nod and keep time with the music.

I think just about all of us expected the band to receive a "1" rating, and we were really disappointed when they didn't. A lot of those kids had heavy hearts on the way home, but in reality they should be really proud of themselves. So this is what I have to say to them: Don't listen to whoever is telling you that you didn't do good enough. Don't bother yourselves with the rating. You worked really hard, came together as a team and did an excellent job. You deserve praise and recognition! You made us PROUD!

Way to go, 6th grade band! You rock!

Lisa Garrison Brownsboro, Texas

Dear Editor:

First off, I would like to thank The Chandler & Brownsboro Statesman for making the community aware of what is happening to the Theater Department of Brownsboro ISD.

As you pointed out, it appears that Mr. Wooten has decided it is time for Mr. Innerarity to go. Mr. Wooten was quoted as saying, "Personnel decisions in the high school are his to make." That I can respect. What I cannot respect is that after less than one year as the principal of BHS, that he has had enough time to get to know the true value of the 60 teachers, per the website, in our system. I was never good in math, but if there are six six-weeks periods, that equals 36 weeks. If you have 60 teachers and only 36 weeks to find out if they should stay employed, that works out to about 3 days for each teacher. So has anybody in the community come to Mr. Wooten demanding the firing of Mr. Innerarity? If so, it has not been brought up yet. Has there been an outcry of the community for this not to happen? The answer is yes.

Just look how many showed up at the School Board meeting with less than 30 minutes notice of what was going on before the meeting.

If I were a full time teacher with the Brownsboro High School, this would be making me very nervous! I hope Mr. Wooten realizes that although personnel may be his call to make, when making such decisions he should consider what is truly best for the community, current and potential new teachers and most of all, our students.

As I was writing this, more information has come my way. It seems after he told Mr. Innerarity that he might want to be looking for a new job and not getting the response from Mr. Innerarity ("I quit"), he has now given Mr. Innerarity a directive that all of the high school drama classes will be held in the Little Theater in the high school. A power play, in my opinion. In doing this Mr. Wooten has managed to waste three and a half years of volunteer work and a large amount of donated equipment that finally got the tech department up to the same level as all of the schools they compete against. Now all of it is just collecting dust in the new control room that the school board finished building for them during this school year. Now that everything is in place and with six weeks left to teach the new equipment, they are locked out. I truly wonder why I bothered pushing for doors to keep the building dry, hanging sound panels on all of the walls to improve the acoustics, building dressing rooms, and a place to store all of the material used for costumes, bathroom door on the ladies' stalls so their guests had privacy, to painting the stage three times, along with countless other tasks at no cost to the district. All of this is for nought. If you feel that the students should have Mr. Innerarity as their teacher and allowed to return to the building that has been updated for them, then I ask you to help me by letting Mr. Wooten know how you feel. In fact, I ask you for true feedback, positive or negative, to Mr. Wooten so he truly knows the community's feelings and not just my opinions stated here.

Sincerely, Matt Mueller, Taxpayer

Voters of Chandler:

I wish to thank all of you who voted for me. There are many of you who not only voted, but put much of your time in supporting me and my goals. There are too many of you to mention here; most of you I have already spoken to personally. Again, THANK YOU. We were in a very intense campaign and as you can see, it was worth it. I am committed to continued progress.

Gene Giger City Councilman Chandler, Texas