On March 8, I sent a letter to the editor of the Farmingdale Observer. This letter was published in the March 21 edition. I also provided a copy of my letter to the Farmingdale Board of Education requesting a written response. While I thought the Farmingdale Board of Education would respond directly to me, they decided to respond via the Farmingdale Observer. Their response also appeared in the same edition. How timely! My comments on the board's response are as follows:

1. The date of my letter to the Farmingdale Observer was March 8 not March 6.

2. I was the Director of Districtwide Operations not the Director of Facilities. I was a member of the certified staff not a member of the civil service staff. The roles and responsibilities of the two positions are quite different. My position was more complex.

3. Over my five-and-a-half year tenure, I literally prepared hundreds of memos, updates, e-mails and letters. My supervisor, his supervisor as well as the board of education in place during these periods were well aware of any and all problems including water infiltration. They knew exactly what I knew.

4. In November 2006, the school district's legal firm asked if I would meet with them regarding the Howitt East School litigation. I did this freely on my own time in the spirit of getting to the truth.

5. In April 2007 I was issued a subpoena by the legal firm representing the former school district architect (not the legal firm representing the school district). In August 2007 I gave a nonparty deposition which lasted one day. There were five legal firms present. These firms represented the school district, former school district architect, construction manager, general contractor and mason. My deposition is 224 pages long. Please don't pick a piece or pieces of the deposition and create your own fabrication of what was said.

6. The Farmingdale Board of Education appears to be greatly minimizing the professional expertise of the architects and engineers of the New York State Education Department.

7. Similar or identical architectural designs and construction have been used successfully, not only in the Farmingdale School District (Albany Avenue, Northside and Saltzman East Memorial schools), but in many other Nassau and Suffolk County school districts.

8. The Woodward Parkway additions were completed in August 2001. Since this time, there are six new board of education members. Tina Diamond is still on the board.

9. The Howitt East School additions were completed in March 2003. Since this time, there are six new board of education members. Tina Diamond is still on the board.

10. I seriously question just how much the current board really knows.

11. You insult me when you mention how valuable the buildings and grounds are. For years, I was the only constant voice in the district pushing for the maintenance and refurbishment of both the buildings and grounds.

12. With respect to costs and compensation, the lawyers are the only parties being compensated.

13. Should the parties agree that remediation is in order, other avenues, other than litigation, can bring this to a timely conclusion.

I repeat once again, stop wasting school taxpayers money!

Edward A. Cullen