I am a parent of a child in the NHP-GCP school district. For several years as everyone is well aware of our budget was defeated on the first vote. Every week the same person writes to the editor criticizing one person or another for being in favor of the budget. Well I would like this budget to pass for many reasons, a few of which I will name. My child was in the All-County Orchestra playing cello and representing our district. Our school district was represented as so many other fine school districts were. What a shame it would be if so many other districts were represented and ours was not. Secondly, many children have attained high scores on the state testing, thanks to the dedication of our teachers and our clinics which clearly help our children with state testing but also teach the children critical test taking skills which will be used in the future as well. I know this as a fact as I actually have children attending our schools as our weekly writer does not. (How can you measure the success of our teachers, curriculum, and clinics if you do not have children attending our schools? How do you obtain this information accurately?) The damage done week after week trying to discredit those that have spoken at a meeting such as the very knowledgeable parent who bravely came up to the podium on May 22, only to see herself in the paper trying to be discredited is persistently unkind. This past week Mr. Cernese's name was used by this same writer to yet again try to discredit his vote (which by the way as a board member he most certainly has the right to do). Our district is in danger of not being at all competitive by continuously cutting and slashing extremely important and cutting edge educational programs. If this budget fails and this district goes into austerity it will be a sad day for our children and it will be disgraceful that we as parents allowed this to happen. To the weekly writer I urge you to put your pen down and listen to the many, many parents that have spoken supporting the budget and not continuously attempt to "stir the pot" week after week after week. There are times when we need to listen, and not always speak. We as a community need to say yes to the budget which has very little financial impact, in actuality only about $80-90 a year per household, but does in fact have a tremendous educational value. Statistics have shown that the US is falling greatly behind in educating our children and other countries are rapidly surpassing us in educating their children. Let's not let this pattern continue. Please vote yes on June 20 so we truly can give our children the very best education that they deserve.

Susan LoFaro,

New Hyde Park