In the June 4 East article, "WHEA, Calinger at Odds," Pennsylvania Education Association representative Butch Santicola stated that Woodland Hills Superintendent Walter Calinger must have intimidated the school board because the board refused to meet with the Woodland Hills Education Association and its Pennsylvania Education Association representatives without Dr. Calinger.

It is not intimidation by, but respect for, the superintendent and his leadership that caused board members to refuse to meet without him present.

Dr. Calinger assumed the leadership of the Woodland Hills district a little less than a year ago and made it clear that he intends to provide an excellent education to every student. Dr. Calinger created the new Woodland Hills Academy because it meets the needs of a substantial number of students in the district.

Dr. Calinger did not create a committee to study his idea for an academy or spend a lot of time and money meeting with "experts," as is so often done in public school systems. He made the concept of the academy -- complete with an extended school year, uniforms, mandatory parental involvement and an enthusiastic staff who are members of the WHEA -- a reality in less than a year.

In creating the academy and making positive changes in all schools in the district, Dr. Calinger worked with the leadership of the WHEA until that leadership was abruptly replaced by the WHEA in March.

Since the change in union leadership, the tactics of the WHEA have been to undermine progress in the District by (1) filing 17 grievances and three unfair labor charges, yet refusing to discuss resolution of these problems with the administration as is customary; (2) trying to meet with the school board privately to undermine the superintendent; and (3) dredging up old complaints about Dr. Calinger from an Ohio school district rather than dealing with the issues, if any, that should be addressed regarding the Woodland Hills School District.

If the WHEA has issues regarding the school district and/or the academy, the leadership should bring those issues to a meeting of Dr. Calinger, his administration and the school board. One word of advice to the new WHEA leadership: Come to the meeting prepared to resolve your issues. Dr. Calinger and his administration are not patient with delay tactics or wasting time in fruitless meetings. The administration's intent will be to resolve the issues and move forward with educating the students of the Woodland Hills School District.

CYNTHIA J. LOWERY

The writer is a Woodland Hills school director.

We would like to respond to comments Rhonda Lazarus made about the Wilkins Public Works Department in the article, "Primaries offer ugly tactics, few upsets" (May 21 East).

According to the article, Ms. Lazarus said she "witnessed" someone who was driving a public works truck remove one of her political signs at a local business.

What the article did not mention was that Ms. Lazarus questioned a public works employee about his involvement in the removal of the sign, to which the employee replied that he had no idea what she was talking about.

Ms. Lazarus then asked the employee who was driving a specific truck for the township. The employee told her he did not know. This occurred May 18.

After reading the aforementioned article several days later, public works [employees] took it upon themselves to find out what had happened to Ms. Lazarus' sign. After an investigation by police, it was determined that an employee of the business where the sign was taken had removed it at the request of the owner. The police closed the case.

If Ms. Lazarus was so sure that a public works employee illegally removed one of her signs, why was no police report filed? And if Ms. Lazarus was not completely sure of what had happened, how could she, in good conscience, give a statement to the paper accusing public works?

We would appreciate that, in the future, Ms. Lazarus get her facts straight before making public statements.

TIM SAUNDERS,

SCOTT MATTHEWS

The writers are employees of the Wilkins Public Works Department and wrote this letter on behalf of the department.