Gill a remarkable jurist, gentleman I was interested in your Opinion column in the April 2, 2009 edition concerning jury duty (Commentary, “Jury duty’s tough, but somebody’s gotta do it,” page 6). As someone who has been called numerous times, and who has served on juries in a variety of cases over a number of years I found your comments typical of those first called to jury service. You mentioned anyone with a Social Security number being eligible to be called. This appears to be a new source for potential jurors. When I first served, I believe they used only the registered voter’s roll. Later they also used the list of those with driver’s licenses; I believe the case that brought that change originated in San Diego. You also mentioned Superior Court Judge Charles Gill. Unless someone else in the family has been elevated to the bench, I believe you listened to Judge David Gill. I had the pleasure of serving with Judge Gill on the board of a local nonprofit organization, where he was an outstanding supporter. I’ve been told by other judges that when a case that may be especially complicated or controversial is pending he is often given the assignment to preside. He is a remarkable gentleman, and I’m sure his comments were encouraging to those encountering jury duty for the first time. Leonard Fry, San Diego Student attendance equals income Here’s a little known fact: Every day a student attends school it produces income for that school. It’s that simple. In the SDUSD budget proposal there are very few options to increase income for the district schools. One of those items is to increase student attendance by .5 percent for next year equaling an income of $3 million! Every stakeholder in this budget process must make changes – so, instead of pulling your student out of class on Friday for that three day weekend in Mammoth, or making that doctor appointment in the morning instead of the afternoon you could be part of the income solution to the district’s budget woes. Each student must be in their chair at the start of the day. If you absolutely have to take your student out of school for an appointment, make it after noon. If we all pull together and get the word out on how important this income is to the school sites then we as informed parents/guardians can earn the SDUSD their .5 percent — let’s go for 1 percent and earn $6 million to save important programs like music and the arts, sports and JROTC. Let’s do our part and expect the other stakeholders to do theirs. Pat Hom, Parent MBHS, FOPBSS President, MBHS Band Booster Treasurer, MBHS SSC Member Just say no The city of San Diego has a gap between city income and city expenses and Mayor Jerry Sanders and City Council started closing the gap by cutting expenses. The state of California has a gap between state income and state expenses, and the solutions of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature are tax increases, which they call reforms. They raised the sales tax, income tax and car tax and reduced the child credit by $200 per child and call that reform. The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association says the increases amount to $16 billion dollars in tax hikes. Now they are asking us to vote yes on Proposition 1A to extend the increases an additional two years. Should we say “no” to these tax-increasing politicians and try to elect some expense-cutting politicians to state offices at the next election? Don French, Point Loma