Throughout the year, the Farmingdale School District and the board of education work to shape our vision for the education of our students. While this vision is molded and refined over time to reflect the needs of our students, it is always our goal to provide the strongest possible foundation for student learning and success within the means of the community.

Several years ago, we began public discussion about long-range plans. We began by discussion the enrollment growth that had started in 1991, that continues today and will continue for at least the next six years. In addition, we discussed new programs, including full-day kindergarten, a 6th-8th middle school and reduced class size in the primary grades. The community supported a bond issue in October 1999 to address these programs and the physical needs to support them. The 2001-02 school budget will see some of these programs come into reality. We will open our full-day kindergarten program in September 2001, and are currently building the classrooms to house this program and to meet the growth needs we've already seen. In this budget, we begin the repayment on the borrowed money needed to accomplish this construction.

Over the past several years, the board of education has overseen the implementation of programs to meet the rigors of the new state assessments and graduation standards. We recommended full-day kindergarten as a necessary program for the good beginning all children need on their road to literacy. We have been asked in recent years to increase the level of performance of all of our students, and we believe that full-day kindergarten will contribute to that process. We will continue to review and access programs, both new and existing, to ensure that they are effective in meeting our students' needs.

Our long-range plans for improvement take a major step forward with the 2001-02 budget. We are building, both literally and figuratively, for a new future for our students. We invite all members of the community to learn more about budget components and to exercise their right to vote on Tuesday, May 15 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the Howitt Middle School.

Anthony Vitale, President

Robert Guarnio Jr., Vice President

Dr. Philip Acinapuro, Maria Colalucci, Tina Diamond

Jane Rubinstein and Dr. Dolores Saxton