At this month's special school board meeting to discuss the school budget and staffing levels, the public was told that the staffing discussion going on was "not about jobs." Board members have since reiterated that statement. Farmingdale's teachers respectfully disagree with them.

Jobs are precisely what it is about. Whenever we talk about staffing, it's always about jobs. For example, it is the job of the teaching staff to do the best we can in our classrooms and whenever we deal with students.

It's the job of the administrative staff to provide the support that teachers need to be able to do their work in the classrooms. It's the job of the school board members to oversee the entire operation providing a safe and enriched learning environment with full support services for all students. Successful building expansions aren't just bricks and mortar.

It is the job of the parents to see to it that students come to school ready and able to learn. And it is the job of the students to put forth the effort to learn the material that is presented to them.

Notice anything? It's all interrelated. It's all about jobs. We're a team. We all have to do our jobs. Change the job and you've changed a living, breathing organism that works, and works well, for our kids.

A board consultant uses the term "fixes that fail." Shortsighted actions may seem to fix what is wrong. But, in the long run, the fix will fail and solving the problem will become more difficult and more expensive in the future.

We've been that route before. Remember the years that our physical plant was neglected? Neglected roofs would leak, buildings would get dirty, fields would begin to resemble deserts, running tracks would once again become impossible to use.

With students, the damage is not so visible. It might not be noticeable until scores on standardized tests drop, or students graduate who are unprepared for college or for life, or until students have a crisis that devastates their families and the entire community - because support services were changed in a doomed "fix that fails."

Research shows that education takes place only when students, staff, and parents believe that schools are a safe, secure environment. We have that environment now. Before changing it, board members should ask would they be able to face themselves if they deprive our community's children of that environment?

We compare education to a three-legged stool, with students, teachers, and parents serving as each leg. The students, the teachers, and the parents are doing their jobs. The school board's job is to provide the floor that is the foundation for everything else.

And it is the job of every single person in this community to remember that in good times or bad times, the kids have only one time. This is their time. And it's our job to give it to them.