To the editor:
I had the opportunity to meet Mendota Heights Mayor Sandra Krebsbach on Saturday, April 28 at the Mendota Heights clean-up day. I was dressed casually, including a red baseball cap with a large white with gold trim letter “S”.
Mayor Krebsbach was one of a few volunteers who helped me unload items from the back of my vehicle. She was very friendly during our encounter and we exchanged a few pleasantries. As we finished unloading, Mayor Krebsbach gave me a sincere smile and looking up at my hat said, “What does the “S” stand for?” I paused for several seconds not knowing exactly how to respond. I was either stunned by the question or I was waiting for it to click with her. As we stared at each other and I could tell there was no sign of recognition, I simply said, “Sibley”.
It is not my intention to open a discussion of the merits of public or private schools or the choices people make for their children’s education. I do expect my elected officials to support all of the high schools in Mendota Heights and am disappointed that the Mayor was unable to easily recognize a baseball cap from the only public school in her city.
Larry Morse
Mendota Heights
Did anyone notice the advertising that the "ground breaking" ceremony at STA got in the Pioneer Press yesterday? Didn't Sibley just remodel, putting quite a few bucks into creating a better educational setting for our students? Yet, you'd never see THAT covered on the front page of the PP. We (Sibley parents) really need to start bragging loudly about the things that happen at our wonderful school. There are many great things happening at Sibley daily that no one ever finds out about. Our AP program, for example, is nationally recognized for high passage percents each year. We prepare students to be competitive for admission to hundreds of top quality colleges every year. The student who achieved a perfect ACT grade is a junior at Sibley. I could go on. If the mayor doesn't recognize our symbol when Sibley is the only public high school in town, how can she profess to support public education, or, for that matter, have any interest in it at any level. If we want our public school system to improve, we need to elect leaders who can make good, informed decisions.
The new logo that I have seen (the shield with the "S", which is sometimes depicted with a warrior silhouette holding the shield) is a far more descriptive. I think if all the athletic teams would universally adopt this logo, you could get some excellent name/brand recognition established within a few years. As to Mary's comment, with the current state of the newspaper industry, those who make the writers/editors jobs easier are the ones who will get the press. STA has an excellent person whose job responsibilities includes regular communications to students, parents, alumni, local community newspapers and the major daily newspapers. STA gets press because they make it easy. As a resident, I find the communication efforts of our district to me rather meager. I am guessing that if the district would place a higher emphasis, as Mary suggests, on regular (and much more frequent) communication, they too would get some press coverage for the many outstanding programs offered.
I LOVE being able to cover the different types of schools in town, and I've always appreciated how welcoming the community is of all of the schools. As an outsider, I've found the private school parents to be by-and-large respectful of the public schools, and the reverse can also be said of Dist. 197 families. Patch is also neat in that parents and coaches and even students are welcome to share their own news through announcements, events and photos, so if something important to you is missing, you are always welcome to share your news with others through the site.
I think you do an outstanding job at the Patch providing similar coverage to all the schools in the area. Sometimes, a school just might have more "news" in a month/quarter resulting in more coverage. Nothing wrong with that. It's just the nature of news. But I especially like the effort on things, like this year's prom photo slide show, to showcase all the schools. And the monthly minute with the Mayors features. You are showing excellent community spirit and very balanced coverage. Keep up the good work.