On Oct. 29, several hundred supporters of North Shore Superintendent Robert Root jammed the gymnasium of the Glen Head Elementary School to demand an explanation for a 4-3 school board decision earlier this month to oust Dr. Root when his contract expires in May 2002. Four hours later, the board agreed to hear further public input during its Nov. 5 meeting and to schedule a special board meeting during which a vote could be taken to reconsider its position in this matter.

Igniting a firestorm of criticism, board president Michael Montesano opened the public comment portion of the board meeting by reading a nine-minute statement into the record that attempted to explain his decision not to renew Dr. Root's contract. After citing laws and regulations that purportedly empowered the board to discharge the superintendent behind closed doors and without public input, Mr. Montesano pointed to alleged excesses in the provision of special education services as a key reason for his decision.

At that point, the floodgates opened as parent after parent, many with children in need of and dependent upon such services, vented their rage that perceived holes in the school budget would be plugged at the expense of North Shore's most vulnerable students. It was no small irony that an independent auditor's report earlier in the meeting confirmed that the North Shore School District's financial house in not only in order, but one to be envied by most other districts on Long Island.

As hundreds sat in every available seat and hundreds more stood two deep along the walls and adjacent corridors of the gym, a multitude of parents, students, senior citizens, teachers, school administrators and former board members read statements, some written in advance and others scribbled on scraps of paper which appealed to board members Montesano, Galati, Grande and Pombar to restore the public trust by rescinding their prior refusal to renew Dr. Root's contract.

Mr. Pombar, a newly elected member of the board, was absent from the meeting due to a prior business commitment. From his distant hotel room he might well have heard the rumblings back home. Ms. Galati, another newly elected board member, intends to be absent from the Nov. 5 meeting.

The question remains. Who among this Gang of Four will step back from the precipice? If Mr. Montesano's statement was any indication, he appears ready, as captain of this ship, to go down with it. Ms. Galati gave no indication of repentance in her letter to the local paper or during her muted attendance at the meeting. That leaves an absent George Pombar and the key swing vote in all of this, Kathryn Grande.

In her 16 years on the North Shore School Board, Mrs. Grande has never wielded more power than she possesses right now. It is within her ability to heal the wounds ripped open by the board's reckless actions or to deepen them. Will she keep the Gang of Four in the majority or reduce them to a minority Gang of Three? Mrs. Grande has given no indication one way or the other. But one thing is for sure. Her legacy, for better or for ill, will hinge on her swing vote when the board reconsiders this episode.

We, the residents of the North Shore School District, can only hope that Mrs. Grande, after requisite soul searching, distances herself from her radical colleagues and joins with the rational ones, board members Tom Murphy, Julia Brennan and Barbara Palermo on this issue. Mrs. Grande's current term will expire in May and it is unclear whether she intends to run for another. If this is indeed the home stretch of her political career, she has the opportunity to save this board from itself, to restore a badly shaken public confidence and to return a special and very rare treasure to the children of this district. A man named Robert Root.

I urge concerned members of the North Shore community to attend the Nov. 5 board meeting which will convene at the North Shore High School auditorium at 8 p.m. It is now or never. The reckless discharge of Dr. Root will only stand if we wait.

Peter Vollmer