Let me tell you about my adventure last Thursday evening at the Glen Cove High School. The 7 p.m. meeting was attended by approximately 25 people. It began with Dr. Laurence Aronstein, the superintendent, making yet another presentation of his $13.9 million bond proposal.

He told us many times how important he thinks it is that the bond is approved. When he was asked why the items for which this bond will pay were necessary, he said that if we don't do these things now, we will not be able to do them again for another 15 years. But he never told us why air conditioning in the high school auditorium, for example, needed to be done at all!

Then came a tour of parts of the high school. I went with a group led by Mr. Schenker, the principal. It was very enlightening. Most of the 11 science labs, the complete replacement of which are part of the bond, are a bit shabby, mostly from the graffiti on the lab bench cabinets. They would look a lot better if merely painted, and for a lot less money than replacement. The stone tops are in good condition as are the gas and water valves, some of which were replaced in 2004-05, so there is no necessity for total replacement, since it would take only one of the 51 members of the building maintenance staff to do all the work.

The best part of the limited tour was the locker rooms and bathrooms. The unused bathrooms on the second floor are in very good shape, but the other bathrooms need some work. A few of the lockers are slightly damaged, but the sinks and toilets are in good condition and appeared clean and sanitary. By far the worst part of the bathrooms was the floors. They are covered with small ceramic tiles and many minor areas have been repaired at times. What was particularly upsetting was the number of areas which had not been repaired in what seems to be a long time. There are places where from as few as nine to as many as over 100 tiles are missing and have not been replaced by either tiles or cement, causing small but potentially dangerous steps. This appears to me to be "willful neglect!" Why else were these unattractive situations not repaired immediately? For very little cost, this routine maintenance could and should have been done as it had been in the past.

Who is to blame? In the last few years, during which Dr. Aronstein was superintendent, millions of dollars were budgeted and spent for maintenance and capital improvements. Why weren't the simplest, most obvious and least expensive things done? I wonder if tiles are missing from his bathroom. I suspect not, since Thayer House just underwent a costly renovation, including carpeting and painting. It seems to me that the bathrooms used by the children should have been repaired first, not last.

It also seems that, like the bathrooms, the high school roof has been neglected for years, as my inspection and photos revealed. That roof which has been leaking to one degree or another for years with the full knowledge of Dr. Aronstein had not been repaired until the situation became so severe that the public is now being terrorized with the fear of what his engineers have said - shattering and total collapse, which are absolutely impossible. I believe that this willful neglect is designed to convince the public to spend vast sums of money for replacement rather than inexpensive weekly maintenance and occasional repairs, for which we are already paying.

We are in the throes of a worsening recession, and now is the wrong time to spend any more money than absolutely necessary. Since we don't need most of what the bond will supposedly pay for, we don't need the bond! Vote no January 20, 2009.

Rick Smith