Traffic not being managed well

Many thanks to the Star-Advertiser editorial board for "Road and rail work need not drive you crazy," (Off the News, June 3). You folks were right on the money with your comments.

My recent experience was a 11⁄2-hour delay between the stadium merge and the H1-H2 merge westbound at 11 p.m. All lanes but one were closed westbound, and the only work I saw going on was on the last 200 yards before the H1-H2 merge.

The state and city should have supervised better lane closure planning based on the actual work area. Clearly there has been no effective coordination between these folks, and this traffic mess is the unacceptable result. These closures as well as the work crew meandering into the only available lane are ridiculous.

While I recognize the need to fix infrastructure and provide jobs, more on-the-spot supervision and better logistical planning needs to be done immediately.

Dan Smith
Makaha

UH should play in lesser division

I just read that my alma matter, the University of Nebraska, is installing a $12.4 million "Fan Experience Improvement" system to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska — all paid for by its athletic program and supporters.

That’s an 80,000-seat stadium that has sold out every home game since 1964. We can’t compete with that, no matter how much the University of Hawaii Board of Regents and Athletic Director Ben Jay may want to tax us and raise tuition.

UH should graciously step down from Division I athletics and play in a division worthy of its program, talent and budget.

In this instance, if you build it, they still won’t come. Why keep pretending?

Michael O’Hara
Kaneohe

Matayoshi fights for better schools

Is the campaign against Schools Superintendent Kathryn Matayoshi the latest ploy in the Hawaii State Teachers Association fight against teacher evaluations?

First, HSTA resisted the development of new evaluations, even endangering $75 million in Race to the Top monies.

What kind of union is willing to damage student achievement to prevent teacher evaluations, seemingly to protect the few incompetent teachers at the cost of the reputation of the vast majority of talented teachers? All universities in the U.S. require teacher evaluations; all successful public school systems require them. Worker evaluations constitute the norm in virtually all professional and many other work environments.

Now a campaign against Matayoshi seems to have the same purpose: Stop the teacher evaluations at any cost, if only by replacing her.

This campaign exists despite significant improvements in public school outcomes during Matayo-shi’s tenure.

I am glad the public schools won’t be losing their finest fighter in the quest for educational excellence.

Cookie White Stephan
Waialae Iki

‘Lowly’ soldiers backbone of U.S.

I’m glad Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is home, but we never could fight a war without our so-called "lowly enlisted soldier."

I take great umbrage with James Roller’s terrible choice of words ("Was Bergdahl trade worth the cost?" Star-Advertiser, Letters, June 5).

Israel has no problem releasing scores of prisoners for just one of their enlisted men, but maybe they value their enlisted men more than we value our own.

Andrew Kachiroubas
Moiliili