The front-page article in the October 14 issue seems to leave out an important fact:

The people who live east of Bellevue High School, who are “concerned” about the remodel of the oldest high school in the city? I doubt that very many of those folks could be old enough to have bought a house in that neighborhood before the school was built. Therefore, they bought there with the knowledge that they would be living next to the “second home” for nearly 1500 teen-agers.

And if any of those homes have teenagers, presumably those students attend Bellevue High School, so having the school next door is an advantage in that regard.

It also is important to note the fact that there already is an entry to the school from 108th. Granted, it is not as big as the proposed entry, but it does exist, and therefore represents a significant amount of traffic currently.

I have driven on the street in question, both during school hours as well as non-school hours. There is traffic there, and it certainly does sometimes move too fast. But that is not caused by the presence of the school.

I have seen the plans for the new high school. The architects, the district personnel, and the city planners have worked hard on the design. They are very aware that it is located in the downtown core, which of course it wasn’t when it was built nearly 60 years ago. But it was there before most, or perhaps any of the residents were.

If it was a perfect world, all of the students and staff would travel to the school on foot, or by mass transit, eliminating the need for parking lots and the inherent traffic. But that isn’t going to happen. Maybe Ms. Bennett should be petitioning METRO, the city and the school district for those changes; her time would be better spent. Renay Bennett’s name is the only one I have ever noticed attached to any protests against the new school design, by the way. I wonder how many residents she actually represents, and what that number is in proportion to the population that will be served by the new Bellevue High School.

Ted Cox, Bellevue