It will truly be a Merry Christmas for Great Neck this year! Taking the ''high road,'' led by our incredibly professional, very dedicated board of education, a strong, united community marshaled forces for the sake of our children, successfully fighting off the very real threat of a charter school in Great Neck. And at the head of the battle were our own state legislators, Senator Michael Balboni and Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli.

With thousands of letters of opposition flowing into their offices, and into the offices of the governor and other state officials, our senator and our assemblyman quickly let it be known that they were very certain that a charter school did not belong here---not in our fine school district. Both legislators went right to work in support of our board of education's resolution, alongside this wonderful Great Neck community, both men using their considerable skills and their powerful positions to put right this wrong.

Assemblyman DiNapoli has, all along, voiced his opposition to this relatively new Charter School Act of 1998. As ever, this community is most appreciative of all of his work, his tireless devotion to us, and his long-standing support for all that is right and good in this community, the community that he, too, calls home. We could not ask for a better champion!

We are so very grateful for Senator Balboni's support, for his constant attention to Great Neck, for the work that he does for us, for the funds that he continues to bring to this peninsula. But right now, at this time, we are supremely grateful for Senator Balboni's ability to go right to Governor Pataki, to explain why this new charter school law should not pertain to a community like Great Neck, why a charter school is so wrong for us. The fact that Mike Balboni could, and did, stand up for us, for his district, at this crucial time, is perhaps the best present this Christmas season. We can only hope that the saying ''what goes around, comes around'' applies to the senator and his family this year, and that their Christmas presents are as precious as the one he just gave to Great Neck.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Mike Balboni and Tom DiNapoli! We wish you health and happiness and success! And we promise never to forget what you have done for all of us!

Merry Christmas to all!

Wendy K. Kreitzman