July 14, 2005

ValleyViewpoints

Troy will be missed

Editor,
I’m not sure who to direct this to. But I’m driven to send my remarks regarding Troy Pollet’s death. I am gratified to read that Anthony Sanchez admitted his wrongdoing. I deeply feel the pain both families must endure.

Troy was a very good friend of my daughter. He was the [“Leave it to Beaver’s”] Eddie Haskell of the neighborhood. Once we had a birthday party at our house and Troy showed up early. I had been goofing with my younger son and he and I had put on fake tattoos. Troy came out on the deck while I was washing it down. My daughter was mortified. And Troy offered to help. I pointed to the dragon on my arm. “Hey, Troy, do you like my tat?” I asked. He remarked “Very cool Mr. George. Can I help you with the hose?” What a suck-up he was. So his death really rattled me because he had a pure soul. I don’t know what happened the night he died. I’m sure he stopped because he wanted to find out for himself why Anthony was chasing him. Because that’s the kind of young man that Troy was. Honest and responsible.

I will miss Troy stopping by the house for a soda and flirting with my daughter.

Rick George
Almaden Valley

Allstars School of Driving implements changes in response to Times articles

Editor,
Allstars School of Driving would like to personally thank the Almaden Times and the community for sharing their concerns about the safety of our children while attending driving school.

The staff of Allstars School of Driving was as horrified by the article about our competitor Advantage Driving School as the community was. Even thought Allstars School of Driving has had zero incidents of inappropriate instructor behavior, we still understand that it is important for Allstars to address the public concerns regarding our industry.

Therefore, Allstars School of Driving has been motivated by the recent Almaden Times articles to go beyond the DMV requirements by answering the public demands in the following ways:

1. Starting July 18, 2005 all Allstars Driving School cars will be equipped with cameras and recording devices. Every student lesson will be recorded and readily available to parents for viewing upon request.

2. Allstars School of Driving cars will be equipped with global tracking systems that will identify where the student/instructors are located al all times. Allstars will be contacting the GPS company to investigate the possibility for parents to log into a web page, with a username and password, and be able to view where the car is located during their student’s lesson.

3. Allstars will no longer depend solely on the DMV’s criminal background check for potential new instructors. As an added precaution, Allstars will be using a private company to do the background check before accepting the potential instructor as an Allstars employee.

4. As an effort to support teens staying in school, Allstars will give a discount to all students who can produce a student ID from their school of attendance.

In conclusion, we here at Allstars hear you and will continue to strive for excellence by implicating procedures and policies that help keep our teens safe. Allstars School of Driving has successfully assisted thousands of teens for nearly twenty years in achieving their independence by obtaining their drivers license. We are happy to use our years of influence to help the community make positive changes that will help keep our teens safer while learning to drive. If the community only supports driving schools who have answered the call for recorded video surveillance in driving school cars, it will force all driving schools to get in step by making the same changes.

John Wright,
owner/operator
Allstars School of Driving

When you talk about coaching pay, don’t forget cheer coaches

Editor,
In regard to an article that appeared in the Almaden Times Weekly June 24-30 issue that discussed SJUSD coach pay, I thought I’d pass on that at Leland, the district pays the spirit coaches a minimal stipend while the parents pay coaching fees twice a year. The district’s rationale is that the spirit squad goes to competitions. (They usually only go to one regional to qualify for nationals. Then they attend the national competition.) To my knowledge, no other sport is supported directly by parents funding the coaching!

Cheryl Fiorentino
Almaden Valley

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