Geesh, sorry I wasn't on here sooner, I could of posted it and none of this argument would have happened.

I guess you want the editors response. I think it's been out long enough, the paper wouldn't be offended if I reposted it here.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

In my response to a letter written by Terry Simpson (Guthrie Schools Superintendent) I intend to take the high road since it appears the low road has been well traveled.

With that being said, according to his letter, Mr. Simpson apparently has overlooked, or forgotten about a school board member, Janna Pierson, present during our conversation in April 2007.

Mrs. Pierson paid a visit to the newspaper office following that conversation.

I’m sure she won’t mind me telling you that she was loud and quite frankly, had the same “attitude” I received from Mr. Simpson on the telephone.

She alerted me to the fact that she had been sitting in Mr. Simpson’s office during our telephone conversation by saying, “I was sitting in his office when he said it.”

It took me almost an hour of talking, and listening, to get Mrs. Pierson to actually listen to the point I was trying to make.

During that time, my entire staff had no choice but to hear every word she had to say…

But, to her credit – by the time she left the office she had opened her mind to the possibility of the school administration submitting updates and progress reports to the GNL.

If not penned by Simpson, then possibly by his assistant, or other staff members.

Mrs. Pierson said she was returning to the board with what we discussed.

Since that meeting in April, Mrs. Pierson and I have had several conversations via telephone. Anytime she felt something was inappropriate on our website, she called. I would check the site, and if I found it to be inappropriate, I removed it.

I’ve banned several people from our website, and sent refund checks for their subscriptions – and, she was well aware of what I had done, and thanked me for the action.

My last conversation with Mrs. Pierson was just last week. She again had a concern with something that had been written on our website. Although it did not mention her by name, she felt the inference would lead readers to conclude she was the person they were discussing. While talking to her on the phone, I pulled up our website on my computer to see what she was referring to. She was correct, there were absolutely no names listed. However, what had been written was deleted.

The next day, I received a thank you card from Mrs. Pierson.

For the record, I have no problem with her. At least she’s been upfront with me about her concerns, and has been willing to talk and work through the issues she’s had with our website.

Why Mr. Simpson said, “the board will not allow me to do business with the newspaper until something is done about Sound Off,” remains a mystery to me.

There were no telephone calls to be returned by my office since communication was ongoing with Mrs. Pierson.

So, I will say again, I hope the board will allow Mr. Simpson, or someone else, to submit a column to inform our readers on items the school district deems necessary.

I do not have a personal agenda or “colored” memory. What I do have are notes taken during an April, 2007 telephone conversation, an offer to the school board, and a newspaper with a website open to the public.