Jim Sweeney

Santa Rosa

Assistant Editorial Director at The Press Democrat

Editorial Director at The Press Democrat

Editorial Director, The Press Democrat, writing editorials on local, state and national news and selecting letters to the editor

Featured in: Favicon

pressdemocrat.com

Articles

Looking back for school plan, Windsor will suffer: PD Letters

Jan 22, 2025 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

Look back for school planEDITOR: The schooling split in the 1950s was grammar school K-8, highs school 9-12, and that was seen as a natural break. With the child population growth after that time, middle school developed. With the shrinking population, why not return to what worked just fine? Middle school teacher Genevieve Lilligren made some valid points, placing 11-year-olds with 18- and 19-year-olds is asking for trouble (“Tweens need their own schools,” Close to Home, Jan. 12).
Extra Letters: Election 2024

Oct 29, 2024 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

Sonoma County library servicesEDITOR: Neil Herring conflates Sonoma County library administration with support departments that also existed before the sales tax but were not included in his account (“No on Measure W,” Letters, Oct. 15). Sales tax revenue is approximately 40% of library revenue; it’s important to note that those funds are spent to support direct public services. The staff at library headquarters includes managers and administrators.
Heat harms kids; Measure J overkill: PD letters

Oct 2, 2024 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

Extreme heat harms kidsEDITOR: Temperatures over 100 degrees were forecast across Sonoma County on Tuesday. We must adapt to the reality that an increasing number of school days are heat wave days. The Sonoma County Office of Education, districts and state and local leadership must act now to ensure that extreme heat does not endanger the health and learning capacities of schoolchildren.
PD Editorial: Waiting to hear from SAY’s leaders about the decision to throw in the towel

Jun 8, 2024 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

The first hint of trouble at Social Advocates for Youth surfaced in mid-November. By early January, as the depth of SAY’s problems came into focus, elected officials, former clients and civic leaders stood in front of a bank of TV cameras and made public pleas for cash. On Feb. 27, despite almost $1.5 million in donations and pledges, SAY filed a Chapter 7 liquidation petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court.
Walters: Supreme Court targets California construction costs

Apr 17, 2024 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

California’s chronic inability to build enough housing — particularly for low-income families — has many causes, but a big one is its extremely high cost of construction. Some costs are intrinsic and unavoidable, such as land acquisition and building materials. But some are artificial and could be lowered, especially those imposed by state and local governments.
Letters to the Editor, Tuesday April 9

Apr 9, 2024 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

Sonoma and the SpringsEDITOR: Are we the Springs or Sonoma? Whether to annex or not? This asks us to have a larger conversation. We have a glaring divide here. How fair is the playing field? How many houses in downtown Sonoma sit vacant, without people living in them half the year? One region is crowded into small places and with great diversity, housing homeless people and building “affordable housing” while the glaring reality is that downtown Sonoma is mostly white with well-groomed streets.
Sweeney: Ready or not, our annual news quiz

Dec 31, 2023 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and don’t necessarily reflect The Press Democrat editorial board’s perspective. The opinion and news sections operate separately and independently of one another.
Guest Editorial: After fire, end under-freeway leases

Dec 14, 2023 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

This editorial is from the East Bay Times:A major Los Angeles freeway was shut down for eight days last month after a crammed state-leased storage area underneath erupted in a massive blaze that damaged the roadway. The same thing could easily happen in the Bay Area, where Caltrans similarly rents out land below thoroughfares for storage without proper oversight. It’s time to end the reckless program.
Restoring discipline in school, and more: Thursday’s Letters to the Editor

Dec 14, 2023 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

Restore school disciplineEDITOR: Several years ago when “restorative justice” became the latest reform movement to arrive at Santa Rosa City Schools, it arrived, typically, as theory. The idea was that the district had too many school expulsions and suspensions that negatively impacted students of color. At the time, suspensions and expulsions were a very small percentage of the school population, but they did consume an inordinate amount of resources.
Turning away homeless students, and more: Saturday’s Letters to the Editor

Dec 2, 2023 | pressdemocrat.com | Jim Sweeney

Failing to help studentsEDITOR: I am saddened that administrators at Cal Poly Humboldt missed an obvious opportunity to help students most in need of housing (“Cal Poly Humboldt students live in vehicles to afford college — They were ordered off campus,” Monday). As a Californian who was fortunate to attend Sonoma State when a semester’s tuition was $120, I am horrified at the cost of getting a college degree today.