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Massapequa's school board is doing responsible job Dear Editor: Wake up Massapequans before you get sucked into the empty promises that are being made to you by the next round of school board hopefuls. They tell you that if you elect t hem, they can and will change things. They will go to Albany. They will go to Washington if need be. Have they ever gone before? PTA Day in Albany has existed for many, many years. They have never been there. Are taxes high in Massapequa? Yes. Do we wish they were lower? Of course, but attacking the sitting members of the school board is not going to change your taxes. Why? There are state mandates and they must be adhered to. The Board of Regents and the State Education Department have in the past and the present said, "You will do this, but we are not going to give you the funds to accomplish it." It will continue to be this way in the future. Why, because they can. Albany and the rest of New York State look at Long Island as their "cash cow." We pay more taxes than anyone else, and get less back in state aid. Long Island senators, assemblymen/women and PTAs have been trying to change this situation for years and years, and they will continue because our children are counting on them. As far as Massapequa salaries, we are right in the middle. There are 56 school districts in Nassau County, and we are the middle of the road. We must be competitive or we will not be able to bring in the great teachers that our children have grown accustomed to. Certainly you don't want that to change. Our administrator salaries are also the middle of the road, and yes we have more than most districts. Massapequa is almost the largest school; district in Nassau County. We must have people to ove3rsee all of the state mandates to make sure that our children have the same shot at the brass ring as all others do. Massapequa offers 21 AP courses and we have 141 AP scholars, we have more scholar athletes than all of our surrounding districts, we have more NYSMA candidates, we offer 11 college level (SCALE) classes, and we have honor societies that grow larger every year. The Massapequa School District is right up there with the most competitive districts on Long Island. The school district, teachers, administrators and the school board must be doing something right. Please do not for one minute believe that the district and school board do not want the Dr. Flaherty issue settled. People who read the Post article and picked and chose what they want to present and blow out of proportion try to make you believe that they know what's going on. First of all, if you have every attended a school board meeting ( I have attended countless) you would know that personnel matters are not open for discussi9on. They are personal and confidential. Arlene Martin did not do anything political. She did what she had to do, again for the children. A decision had to be made, and it had to be done immediately. There is no sitting school board anywhere that would want to take on the dismissal of a superintendent unless they had good reason and no other alternative. The district must continue to pay Dr. Flaherty's salary until her contract ends, which it does in September 2008. There is no way around it. School board members are volunteers. They give of themselves tirelessly endlessly. They go through mountains of reading. They often give up personal time because something has come up. There is no salary whatsoever. More often than not, no one says thank you, but people are sitting there ready to pounce at any given moment. The current school board has accomplished many things and should be commended for the job they are doing, not persecuted because Long Island taxes continue to go up.
If you really want to know what's going on, don't just take my word. Go to a school board planning session and meeting. Check the school calendar for dates. Get involved on the different school district committees. See for yourselves. Let's not go back to the days of a school board that did not allow the superintendent to do his job, but everything in the budget to the bone and cause much dissent in the community. It took a very long time to come back from those days and bring Massapequa back to the wonderful, high achieving school district that it is. Our children are counting on you to make the right decision for their futures.
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