When considering your vote on the Hicksville Public Schools Bond Referendum on March 20, the two questions that must be asked are: Is this bond necessary and can the community afford it?

More than 75 percent of the bond addresses major facility repairs and replacements such as new boilers, windows, roofs and plumbing. Most Hicksville residents live in houses that were constructed around the same time as the majority of our school buildings and how many of our homes have their original 50-year-old roofs, boilers, windows and plumbing? Not many.

Another 15 percent of the bond addresses technology improvements which will bring our district up to par with other Nassau school districts.

There has been much quibbling by some residents lately about the improvement projects addressed by a small portion of the bond. Some feel that there should be more improvements included, some less. Some residents disagree with the choice of projects, labeling them, in their opinion, unnecessary. But these are projects that many residents have been requesting for years and were always pushed aside in the yearly budget by more pressing items.

Improvements, such as the upgrades to our high school and middle school auditoriums and all district athletic fields - which are used not only by public school students, but thousands of Hicksville's children in various community sports programs - become more affordable when included in a bond. In fact, eliminating them from the bond would only save the average home in Hicksville about one dollar a month! Not much when you consider what you would get for the money.

The cost of this bond to the average home, after state aid, would be approximately $148 per year or about $12 a month - less than the cost of one video rental per week and certainly affordable for the overwhelming majority of Hicksville residents. Bond rates are the lowest they have been in years and removing the tremendous cost of these facility repairs from future yearly budgets will allow more assets to be allocated to curriculum items and teacher salaries.

Long-time school board critics point to surrounding districts and ask why Hicksville's test scores aren't as high, but they refuse to recognize that some of these districts spend 30 to 50 percent more on education. These critics demand higher teacher salaries, higher test scores and better facilities, but complain bitterly each year that the smallest budget increase, or even this bond, is too much and unaffordable.

Well, you can't have it both ways. Hicksville's schools will not improve unless this community is willing to invest in education and that begins with voting yes for this important and necessary school bond.

Carol Koegl