Asked if the Superfund site and the neighboring Patroon Creek are now safe, a spokesman for EPA responded, “The February 2024 Five-Year Review indicated that the Mercury Refining site is protective of human health and the environment now that all institutional controls, including environmental easements, are in place.”

Now that a student who was charged in February with making a threat of mass harm has returned to classes, the mother of one of the 20 students he had targeted wants to know what plan the school has in place to protect them. The superintendent assures that the district has safety plans but says, “There is no information I can share on how we would address the needs of a particular child.”

DeAnna Cornelius, Guilderland

The question we face, as a society, is: Should the government provide needed childcare in the form of public schooling?

The Albany Diocese has told The Enterprise that, following an unannounced state visit on Jan. 12, noted violations have largely been remedied.

Jill Harbeck, Altamont

GUILDERLAND — A group of youths were spray-painting racial slurs on a Western Avenue sidewalk near Venezio Avenue last Sunday evening, Aug. 25, according to a release from the Guilderland Police.

Current assessment challenges are nowhere near the scale of earlier years in Guilderland. “That’s good news,” said the school board president. “Please tell me when to panic.”